Days will be coming up when you need a child’s gift….birthday…special holidays. Why not give them books that teach so many things as well as entertain? See reviews on Amazon site and purchase books below.
Grandpa and the Truck Book 1 |
Grandpa and the Truck Book 2 |
****For more information and to hear story excerpts, click section on the bar at the top of this site.
Three little kids (2 boys…one girl), with crazy hats?, colorful sunglasses (on one?), leaning against trees in their backyard, or on a playground, rap to following: They ham it up, putting on “surprise” face (“was surprised”) or make steering motions for line “That he manned the big rigs.” Imagine their other effects, too, as they rap to the following…..
Asked Grampy what he did
For his money-earning gig
Was surprised when he told us
That he manned the big rigs.
In his truck, “Proud Mary”
Sitting high on his seat,
Went to every state but one…
Oh, that job was sweet….
****(Cut away to one boy saying)………”Except for when it wasn’t”
Saw a 6-car pileup
Off a California highway
Following a “smokie”
On a super-foggy day
Partner Ralph found out
Just how dangerous it can get
In the foothills of Virginia
When bloodhounds aren’t pets.
In Biloxi, Mississippi
Grandpa stopped for shrimp ‘n grits
But his motel lost its roof
When the hurr-i-cane hit.
Rhody’s “Girl Truckers” proves
Men and women are the same
They should do the jobs they want to
Never ones based on their names.
Soon… Grandpa will tell
Of the time he got stuck
On a New York State highway
Two whole days in his truck
(One child says: “They called it ‘Woodstock.’ “)
Then, there’s West Virginia
When he climbed that mountain road
In coal-mining region
With a full household load.
(Little girl says: “To bring a little girl her toys.”)
His stories teach geography
In a way that’s really cool
They tell us other things, too…
Not always taught in school…
Grammy says they’re ‘wholesome’ (Other little boy shrugs “What’s that?”)
Their lessons are a must…
They’re all “Made in America”…(Pause)
In a way… they’re just like us.
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To buy these exciting stories (2 to a book), go to links above…and Thank you!
“There Are Far Worse Things Than Going to School”
He was only 17. They’d thrown him out of school for his accidental burning of the woods right next to the school. Oh, he didn’t mean it. He’d just ducked out a side door of the school to sneak a smoke break with his buddy, Joe Grover. When he finished the butt, he flicked it off. It landed on dry kindling. That’s how the fire in the woods started.
The worst part? The school (Joe T. Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas) was named in honor of a relative. Now, he’d dishonored the family.
At first, he thought “Being thrown out isn’t so bad. I’ll get a job and earn some money.”
And so, the next day he started working for a roofing company. The boss had him high up, on a hot roof, in 120 degree heat of a summer day. His job? Spreading the hot tar that made the roof shingles stick. He was breathing in the fumes and sweating so much he thought he’d pass out.
“Argh…Ugh…Phewie…” he said, all day long, pushing the long broom handle up on the roof, moving the black resin, to even it out.
The tar stuck to his fingers and clothes. Try as he might, he couldn’t remove it.
When some days were too hot to work, the crew went up on the roof at night, to work under spotlights.
It was dangerous, sticky work.
He realized only later that his roofing job was much harder than any school day.
***This trucker, Paul Wesley Gates, would go back to school, years later, and earn his GED and an Associates Degree in college. But he had to learn the hard way.
***To buy “Grandpa and the Truck” books for kids, go to colleenkellymellor.com (an Amazon link is provided).
**To get future posts on “Grandpa and the Truck,” please sign on to this website.
Well, you can blame our becoming storytellers about big rig drivers on our youngest (at the time) grandchild—Finn, who was 4 or 5. We’d given him a toy big rig and he was on the floor, pushing the truck, making it appear as if someone was driving it. Suddenly, he held up his hand, holding an imaginary CB and began talking to other truckers who might be up ahead on the imaginary highway, saying: “Breaker…breaker..19…Any smokies up ahead, on the superslab?”
He was asking if any “smokies” (police) were on the “superslab” (highway) which suggests his trucker might have been going a tad faster than he was supposed to.
Hearing him told me that my youngest grandchild had listened to the stories I’d told him of Grandpa’s truck-driving years and he’d even memorized some of the special language truckers use when talking to each other.
In that moment, I decided to write my husband’s more remarkable adventures: being caught on an ice-slicked Maine steep incline with another big rig hurtling down at him, one whose trailer had swung sideways, threatening to take out Grandpa’s big rig…and Grandpa. Or the time Grandpa felt Jesus was his co-pilot, when he miraculously awoke to find his big rig had taken an exit, crossed through a busy intersection and climbed an entrance ramp, all, safely, and before he knew what happened. Then there was the time he was caught up in the Woodstock craziness, when approximately 400,000 converged on a dairy farm in upstate New York, to hear their favorite singers. He was stuck there for 3 days, unable to move, due to traffic congestion. What’d he do to pass the time? Helped another trucker buddy give away his cargo of watermelons, in a Biblical loaves and fishes kind of way.
Or the West Virginia story, when he climbed a mountain road in coal mining territory, a road that got increasingly more narrow. He had to think fast that time, to enable a unique delivery.
In our stories, I’ve written about truckers’ passion for their trucks…how they pretty them up, give them names, etc.
I allow Grandpa’s readers to see the vast country of America through the eyes of a long-haul trucker who traveled every single state, but one (do you know which one state you can’t drive a big rig to?), in his big rig. Geography figures big in our stories.
Each story has a moral or lesson that’s important for little ones, one borne out by our trucker’s experience. We weave together nature (ice storms, hurricanes), historical events, geography (no GPS here!).
Finally, Grandpa is a patriot; he loves America; he even served many years in the Navy and Army National Guard, protecting our land, while still trucking. He used his considerable trucking skills in other lands, too, building airports, schools, hospitals, because a trucker is never “just a trucker.”
So, we invite you and your little ones to begin the journey with 2 of our first Grandpa and the Truck stories (Book 1 and 2). They’re on the Amazon website, along with reviews.
“Breaker…breaker…1-9. Come along on our journey through America.”
Dear Colleen,
“What a wonderful day we had at Leisure Learning. Everyone was so impressed with your presentation! You have inspired many from the youngest to the oldest. You know from the audience’s response you held their attention to the very end. I am so proud that I was able to introduce you….” (photo is of St. Luke’s Peirce St., East Greenwich, where I spoke.)
From Eleanor Keating (the woman who booked me), Leisure Learning, East Greenwich, RI
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The following is from Director of two elder-living sites in West Warwick where Colleen spoke this fall. Colleen’s now invited to the third site this director oversees in Johnston for a presentation in 2017:
“Colleen Mellor and her husband were guest speakers at two of our elder living sites this fall… Plaza Esperanza in West Warwick and another visit to Wildberry Apartments.
“Our experience with Colleen Mellor was extraordinary!
“Colleen was funny and very entertaining. She was a burst of energy for our elder residents. She inspired them to consider the history of their lives and to be their own memory keepers. Colleen engaged the residents to reminisce…
“I look forward to hosting Colleen and her husband again at our other senior housing sites. Not only is she a wonderful guest speaker, but she is also a genuinely kind person.”
Lucy Goulet, CRSC
Housing Opportunities Corporation
I not only speak. The audience bought my Grandpa and the Truck books, too. We can offer them on our website until Dec. 18 and then cannot guarantee shipment in time for Christmas or other holiday. I can personalize by child’s name if you add in Paypal instructions and I sign as author (how cool is that?) Your intended child gets actual author-signed book, one backed for authenticity by biggest trucking group, OOIDA, and Women in Trucking (WIT) and recommended by teachers, parents, and kids!
And contact me if you wish guest-speaker. I’m loving my new role…and apparently audiences do, too.
For children’s books, go to https://grandpaandthetruck.com
