What Sam says
Writing prompts
I am cleaning out a closet this week. I kid myself. This closet will take more than a week to comb through. It is full of material meant to be the foundation for future writings.
I stumbled across some of Sam’s things I kept, just in case there was another book to follow See Sam Run. In high school English, Sam had writing prompts, too. I will be rolling these out over the next days and weeks.
As it customary with Sam’s writing, no editing is required.
If I were a cow, I would wake up before sun up. I would also take a day off to get fed. My favorite dairy product is, of course, fresh milk. I would also have Parmesan cheese as a second favorite dairy product. If I were a cow, I wouldn’t have to worry about homework. – June 11, 2002
Overheard in the Wolfe House #181
Peggy: Hey, Sam, why don’t you help out here and dry some silverware? I don’t have room for one more piece in the rack.
Sam: Ok.
(sometime later) I don’t have to do all. I can just do enough that you have more room.
Peggy: Well, that’s true. But if you want to do the minimum, then just dry the big cooking and serving spoons. You’ll be done after just two or three pieces, then.
Sam: I’m afraid I’m just picking random pieces of silverware.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #180
Peggy: (whistling Orinoco Flow)
Sam (in a stage whisper): Oh, mom whistles off-key.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #179
Sam (after an upsetting morning): And don’t put that as an Overheard.
Peggy: I won’t.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #179
Sam: Oh, Gus! You’re in the office now? I can’t stand it if you’re gonna stink up the office now!
Paige: (from the other room) Then wash him!
Sam: I can’t do that. It doesn’t make sense to wash him when he’s cutting the cheese.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #178
Peggy: I hear that lots of girls wanted to dance with you after Special O.
Sam (grinning): Yes. There weren’t a lot of leader-follower dances.
Peggy: Oh, you mean things like the Macarena … and the chicken dance, and YMCA.
Sam: Yes. With leader-follower you can dance with a partner.
Peggy: Like the two-step?
Sam: Two is best for two-step.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #177
Peggy (putting trivet back for a pan of kolaches due to come out of the oven in two minutes): I’m sorry. You need that. It’s just that I’ve been cleaning for 40 years, so I kind of go into auto-pilot.
Sam: Mom, you need to know that once you go into auto-pilot, you can’t come back to Earth.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #176
Peggy: How come you’re so handsome?
Sam: I don’t know. I don’t want to look bad.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #175
Sam: I don’t know what grass it is that gives me allergies, but it survived the drought.
Peggy: Yes, it did.
Sam: It just waited for the rain and [claps hands together]. Like a logic bomb.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #174
Peggy: I saw the cat playing with what I thought was a worm this morning, and then it started moving its thousand legs and I realized it was a centipede. Or a millipede.
Sam: Oh, wow.
Peggy: It took about five hits with the fly swatter to kill it.
Sam: Why did you kill it?
(long, long pause)