My Very First Written Story

I told lots of stories when I was little - to my friends, my mom & dad, and to my little brother. Those were so many years ago that I don't remember them at all. I remember I had fun and my little brother laughed a lot.

The first story that I ever wrote down was due to not paying attention. My second grade teacher, Miss Bryan, handed out a list of spelling words that we were supposed to learn - I got home from school and couldn't remember what the list was for. So I decided I'd try to write a story using as many of the words as I could. The following is the result. I tried to keep the "paragraphing" the same.

How Hippo Got Fat (Fall 1981)
One day Hippo, Monkey, and Ostrich went to seek Bear at his cave, but Bear was not there. He left a note saying that he had gone to the river with Zebra. It was nearly daybreak, but it seemed dark. Bear's note said to bring a blanket and a lot of potato chips. Hippo found a baby that crawled. That afternoon, he brought the baby to the picnic. When it cried, Ostrich whispered a lullaby until the baby fell asleep. Hippo got puffed up from eating nineteen-hundred potato chips. Zebra got angry and his stripes turned red.
Hippo said, "I was hungry!"
Zebra said, "That's NO excuse!" and stamped his left hoof.
While the sun set, Hippo, Monkey, Ostrich, Zebra, and Bear counted stars. After the sun set, they all followed Bear home.

Why the Title?

I decided to title my blog "Redheaded Musings" because I'm a redhead (duh) and I like wordplay. Musing is thinking about things, but there's also the Muses, who in Greek mythology bestowed creativity on mortals.

At times I've thought of myself as a creative person, other times I think about things, so I thought the title fit.

When I was younger I wrote poems and stories. I want to get back in to doing that, but first I think I'll start transcribing all of the stories and poems I have. If I remember anything about the origin of the story I'll write that too. This will be fun for me - if no one else. :)