Kids Have Ears the Size of An Elephant and a Mouth To Match

I read Darryl Ashton’s poem Called Pinocchio Rex and this brought back memories of a childhood incident When I grew up we had a smallholding – the house was called ‘Longacre’ as we had over an acre of land. Over the years we had chickens, pigs named Pinky and Porky and a goat called Susie… she had kids called Billy and Nanny – guess I was no good at names back then… but I digress Attached to the house was a small village shop but my parents also made a small income from selling fresh eggs and in the summer home grown strawberries – I would help pick washing baskets of them and bag them up to sell. Every week a little old man would arrive for his dozen eggs and if the shop was shut he would ring the doorbell. He wore a pointed felt hat, had steely blue eyes and the most enormous nose you have ever seen. Unbeknownst to him my parents nicknamed him 'Pinocchio'. When I was aged about 7 years old the doorbell rang – mum was busy baking in the kitchen so I answered it. There in front of me stood this old man wanting his eggs. Mum shouted from the kitchen ‘Who is it Janet?’ I replied ‘Oh its only Pinocchio’ At once mum appeared from the kitchen, her face was the colour of beetroot. She apologised for the comment from her ‘cheeky daughter’ The man purchased his eggs and walked away – never to return! The moral of this true tale is that parents ALWAYS tell the truth and that children have ears the size of an elephant and a mouth just as big … so if you don’t want them to repeat something YOU have said keep it zipped! Jan Allison 11th August 2014