The Story of the Candy Polyp
A campfire story by Chace
May 13, 2004

Once there was a candy polyp. His name was Chace. He didn’t like to follow the other candy polyps. He liked to explore the woods. One day he ran off to explore the woods. He took the Salt Path. He was very hungry and thirsty. He found a picnic table. The picnic table had lots of food and many bottles of water. And he ate and drank.

He had a shadow, and the shadow disappeared. It was the Shadow of Dreams. It wasn’t like the candy polyp; it was like a person. The candy polyp was cinnamon.

In my dreams, I was riding on a freight train.
The name of the freight train was Fast Freight.
When it went through the trees, it went fast
And when it came out of the trees, it went slow.
It went through a big dark tunnel.

It had “Scruffy” and “Rickety”.
They’re both troublesome trucks.
“Rickety” is green and “Scruffy” is brown.
There was a southbound train on a southbound track.

The name of the train was Fast Freight.
It went fast in two places.
When it went through the trees, it went fast
And when it went through the tunnel, it went fast
And when it came out of the trees
And when it came out of the tunnel
It went slow.

The name of the tank engine was Thomas
And the name of the driver was Casey Jones.
It’s a good name for a brave engineer.

He says, "You're a beauty. And when you're dead, I'll call you a dead beauty!"

I have no idea where he picked up that one.

"Mama -- I want to come home... right now! I miss you. I love you. My name is Casey Jones. I want you!"

At the bottom is a picture of a sad face that he drew, and a valiant attempt to write his name, although only the "C" and "H" are legible.

Maybe it's not a quote, but it's pretty cute anyway.

Also I told him that George Bush wants people to drive cars and he doesn't like trains. That pushed Chace over the top. First he says, "I will kill George Bush," and we gently explained that in our country, we don't kill our leaders, but we can vote for new leaders who will do a better job. Then he got on this kick where he would say, "Mama, I'm going to smash all the cars, and give all the money to trains." I asked how people will get to work if he smashes the cars and he says, "Everyone can ride the train to get to work. I'll smash all the cars. I'll do that for you, Mama. I'll smash all the cars for you. Because you don't like cars."

He also started blaming George Bush for all sorts of random bad stuff, like during the firestorms we were watching the news and he says, "George Bush wants those houses to burn in the fire." And during a report on a car accident he says, "George Bush wants people to crash their cars." So we've been trying to be a little more careful about badmouthing Bush in front of him, at least trying to keep it in perspective.

Last night he said, "A lot of people in our country are getting hurt." I asked him what people are getting hurt and he said, "The people who are going to Iraq to fight." We've been talking to him about the war, that we don't think the war is a good idea and we want a new leader who will stop the war. I asked him last night how he thinks the people in Iraq feel about the war, and he said, "Scared, especially the boys and girls in Iraq. They should stop fighting so the boys and girls won't be scared anymore."

My mom thinks we shouldn't talk to him about politics, especially anything negative. She thinks it will just make him worry and feel insecure, and that talking negatively about our leaders will cause him to develop a lack of respect for authority and negative feelings about government. He certainly has some of those! But we try to explain how we can pick new leaders if we don't like our leaders, and how we can write letters to our leaders to tell them how we feel. I guess we'll see if Chace ends up joining Earth First! and smashing up automobiles when he grows up...