Today, my knitting was taken to the Staple Hill Oak where I lunched with Mum. As I continued moss stitching my violet-coloured scarf, Mum told me about how she had looked after my nephew and niece during the previous evening.
“I told Sam a Willy The Worm story”, she said. These stories are a family tradition.
When my brother was growing up, Dad would tell him bedtime stories about Willy. By the time these stories began, I was already old enough to read myself to sleep so I guess I missed out on them.
I suspect that when Dad began a story, he had no idea what would happen next – and Mum admitted that since taking over his role as storyteller, she too cannot tell how the plot will unfold. Which I would imagine would make for an interesting experience.
Anyway, this is the story that Mum told last night:-
“Every Wednesday, after Willy The Worm’s mum had taken him to school, she would get on a bus and disappear into the unknown. Willy would watch her leave and long to know where she was going.
One day, he decided that he was going to find out. So, when they reached the school and his mum was looking the other way, Willy The Worm jumped into her shopping bag and hid at the bottom of it. Then he travelled on the bus all the way to his mum’s mysterious destination.
It turned out to be the local community centre. Willy The Worm wriggled out and found that his mum was knitting. And so were all the other worms sitting around the room.”
“How can worms knit?” asked Sam. “They haven’t got arms”. “Well, they’re clever like that”, said Mum (probably because she hadn’t a clue how they managed it).”Anyway”, continued Mum, “Willy The Worm’s mum was very surprised to see him. ‘What are you doing here?’ she said. Willy The Worm whispered, ‘I was worried that you had found someone you liked better than Daddy” (GOSH – that’s sad!). Willy The Worm’s mother laughed, and Willy felt extremely happy.”
I wonder what she was knitting.
As I’ve been writing this, I have come to realise that even though I missed out on Willy The Worm during my childhood, my Mum did actually tell me one of his stories today. What a nice treat for a 54 year old! So I now feel that I have been given the chance to revisit my youth and catch up on lost opportunities. And the scarf is also an inch or two longer than it was at the beginning of the day!
knit2together 