09/29/12

Want Us at Your School?…Grandpa and the Truck

Wow! I’m excited…Last week we had a big week, with 3 presentations. First, we were at East Greenwich Library; then, we went to Hasbro Children’s Hospital and tho’ that was a worthy cause, we only had 3 little ones in the audience (others confined to rooms, due to low immunity). Following our presentation, we gave them books, in attempts to brighten their difficult day.

But because these audiences were small, we didn’t get a feel for how kids would receive our message.

Then, we went before Warwick Central Library, where we had an audience of 20-25 little ones, ages 3-4, on Thursday Morning Story Hour. It was a hoot!

We had sound effects of bloodhounds baying and hurricane winds howling. While husband manned the tech equipment, I launched into the stories. Periodically, I asked my young audience questions.

What was so interesting to me? The age-group reaction. You see, I’m a teacher of 30 years’ experience with older kids—those 12, up to 17, so this younger crowd is a new one for me, with the exception of our grandkids.

As a 30-year teacher to the arguably-toughest audience (adolescents), I’m used to using a rapid-fire approach…duck and parry…move about; utilize fancy footwork; make eye contact…change the beat.

I used all ways to bump up the attention span….that’s my forte.

And I gotta say: This last presentation before a sizable audience went beautifully. I LOVED it. The little ones stayed with me and we even came away with some awesome ideas of how we’ll change the ‘show’ in the future: For the fog effect of story 1, Book 1, we’ll get dry ice and let its vapor waft about. Husband will pose lights behind it to give effect of truck headlights in deep mist (big rig’s on a foggy roadway in this story.)

We’ll incorporate more sound effects for the part where police cruiser goes through the guardrail and down into the ditch…with the other cars following him….Down…Down…Down…

At the end, we asked them questions and they asked my trucker-husband questions, like “What’s your favorite color?” (I didn’t see that coming).

When we asked them what they thought was “the only state in the United States he didn’t go to, as a trucker,” they answered ‘America.’ Another offered ‘Alaska.’ Only the assistant librarian knew the correct answer—”Hawaii.”

I then added: “That’s what we do in the Grandpa and the Truck stories—We teach geography…… and a whole lot more.”

At the end, I chose one child to give a free book to (I didn’t let the others know.)

I wanted to give her our newest book, #2, for it contains “Girl Truckers” as one of its two stories (every Grandpa and the Truck book has 2). Its message is clear: People should choose careers and jobs based on interests and abilities—not on whether they’re boys or girls.

But those books hadn’t arrived at our home yet from the printer. When did they arrive? After we finished all the presentations we were slated for. Isn’t that always the way?

Grandpa and the Truck will be going to many more schools, as I now know: That is our audience. If you want us to visit your school, please contact us…Either comment below or send us an email at ckmellor@cox.net. We are vetted by top school authorities, so be assured..

In the meantime, our books are For Sale at Symposium Bookstore on Main Street East Greenwich and Twice Told Tales, in Edgewood (Cranston), RI.  In Asheville, NC., they’re at Malaprops Bookstore and Mountain Made, in the Grove Arcade.

We’ve just been named to OOIDA’s “Cool Gifts” section of Landline, the truckers’ association magazine that goes out to 200,000 families; that will hit those home in mid-November.

Our books are also available at www.grandpaandthetruck.com.

09/20/12

Grandpa and the Truck: Book 2 Available for Purchase

Here he is– this trucker who awoke to find the roof blown clear off his hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi, in August of 1969.  Fiction?  Heck no…It was the night Category 5, Hurricane Camille whalloped that seaside town, leaving devastation in its wake (and experts recently worried about Isaac’s 80-mph winds!!!)

This trucker had many experiences in his 30 years on the road, and we tell of the most exciting ones in the Grandpa and the Truck stories.  But they’re decidedly “Not Just for Boys”.  In Book 2 (same one that has hurricane story), “Girl Truckers,” focuses on two Rhode Island women who showed the men just how good women could be at long-haul trucking. They were two of the forerunners of women, today, who drive the big rigs…

Each of the Grandpa and the Truck books is comprised of two beautifully-illustrated stories, Questions sheets that help with discussion, Trucker Terms, and Maps to help children acquire other-than-GPS knowledge of our great country.

Books are $9.99.

Soon will be the season of shopping for little ones, for Christmas and Kannukah.  Then, too, there are always those inevitable birthdays one must run out and buy a child’s gift for?  What’s better than educational  books that teach many things to little ones?

These books just could be the hit of the party and the books that child will cherish.

09/20/12

“What You Get” with Our Books

You know the “Look Inside” Button on many book vending sites. Well, I decided to use our own on this site, so we can show you what you’ll get, in terms of beautiful, folksy illustrations, question guide sheets to help discussion, “lessons” clearly spelled out (each story has a life lesson this trucker learned.)

Click here to see our Facebook “Look Inside” feature for beautiful illustrations…Colors something like this… Continue reading →

09/4/12

Who’s the Trucker Behind Grandpa and the Truck stories?

I couldn’t write these stories if I didn’t believe in the man.  He had to be a folk-hero type, a man who knew his industry and one who little ones could learn from.

Oh, he told me the stories over the years, and I thought them remarkable…so much so that when I told them to our grandkids and saw their reaction, I decided to “put them out there,” in books.

You see, Paul Wesley Gates was born in Humnoke, Arkansas, in a one-room house aside a field, where his parents worked long hours, picking cotton.  According to him, it was ‘so far back in the boonies, they had to pipe in sunshine.’

He’d eventually have 2 brothers and 4 sisters, but one died. It was a tough life and they were poor.

At 17, his formal schooling ended, when school officials suspended him for inadvertently burning down a copse of trees adjacent to the school.  He’d hastily discarded a cigarette….all the more embarrassing because Joel T. Robinson School was named for a relative of his.

That’s when he went into the roofing business.  But he hated spreading hot sticky tar on roofs in 110 degree Arkansas summers and when the conveyor truck delivery man took out mailboxes, hit the sides of buildings, and screwed up deliveries, the boss fired him.

That’s when Gates became a trucker.  He slid onto the seat of a cab and never left—for the next 30 years.

Two years into that job, he was foreman, running a crew at 19.

From there, he joined the Navy as one of the Seabee construction crew and went to Rhode Island which became his ‘home port’ for the next 52 years.

But he’d go lots of other places, too.

He began trucking for a Rhode Island company, hauling freight and a few years into the business, he bought his own big rig …and then a second one.  He was training men, too, who’d became his driving partners in a career that saw him travel every state in the United States—except one.

He was now officially, an owner-operator, hauling households (a “Bedbug Hauler,” as they say in the industry.And don’t our little ones squeal in delight over that?!)

When his 4 year Seabee stint ended, he joined the Army National Guard and rose to Sergeant First Class.  In that capacity, he traveled the world, using his trucking skills in other lands like Sicily, Spain, Germany and Guatemala, building airstrips, hospitals, and schools.

Because he had exceptional talent in shooting (all that hunting as a young ‘un, getting supper for the family, paid off,) he took his National Guard’s combat pistol team to Arkansas for annual competition, even coming in 4th. in the nation one year. He did this for 20 years.

And, remember his shortened schooling due to a cigarette tossed aside? Well, that same man went on to get his GED and Associate’s Degree, in college.  He gave up smoking, too, in his 30’s.  He’d learned, by then, the value of both an education and being physically-fit (he still jogs.)

So, this is just a small capsule summary of the trucker behind this series.  Was he an exceptional trucker, too?  You bet. He was named one of Atlas Van Lines’s Elite Fleet of truckers, drivers who logged millions of miles without accident.

That meant he didn’t just drive well; he avoided accidents, as well.

So, trucker, sailor, soldier, marksman, world-traveler, patriot… and a darned good American. Just some of the reasons he’s the Model Trucker for the Grandpa and the Truck stories…

08/28/12

Rhode Island’s Next “Alex & Ani”? I Can Dream…Can’t I?

Last year I wrote a blog post about them on my Biddy Bytes website—the little company that grew out of nothing to become a national phenom. Its adherents wear thin little bangles of recycled, non-precious metal ‘round their wrists signifying all sorts of things.

It’s believed each wristlet is imbued with some kind of spiritual essence, and the company’s brilliant marketing plan pushed these little body adornments into the stratosphere, for they’re everywhere—most notably on most of Rhode Island’s female population (whose wrists are almost exclusively encircled with dozens of the little dears.) But men wear them, too.

With all their success, Alex and Ani has never forgotten who they are—a Rhode Island company.

You see, that’s important to them, for the jewelry industry used to be BIG here, but in the decades since it’s heyday, that industry’s fizzled and tanked.  And recently, when other states’ unemployment rates spiked at 8% unemployment, we’d already ‘gone there,’ and topped out at 10%.

So when a little company harkening back to our “King of the Jewelry” era was born, we all embraced it. It was just good karma.

But Alex & Ani is the brainchild of one woman who followed her dream to follow her jeweler father’s lead, developing her product. Now people clamor for her and their company product. And her product is in all the supposed fashionable places like Newport… Naples…Hollywood.

Her mission is to doubtless encircle the wrists of all who wear jewelry.

We, at Grandpa and the Truck, have a similar mission. Curiously, we find ourselves alike our sister RI company, in other ways, too.  We’re both…

  •  Products of a small, grass-roots efforts.
  • “Made in the United States”…That’s important to us, as we do our little part to grow the US economy. Our books are printed in Charleston, SC—not China, like so many others.
  • Formed from ‘recycled materials’…Our books are made out of paper which is made out of trees.
  • The brainchild of Rhode Island women.
  •  Share a similar mission:  Alex & Ani hopes to be on everyone’s wrist, while we want a Grandpa and the Truck book in every child’s hands.
  • Committed to our products.
  • Known for charitable component: We go to hospitals to cheer up sick kids; they have a corporate charitable component.
  • Bringing joy to others with our products.
  • Named for one of us. Owner/designer, Carolyn Rafaelian, named her company after two of her children; we honor Grandpa (the trucker) in ours.
  • Inexpensive.  Alex & Ani cost about $25.00 per bangle, while Grandpa and the Truck books cost $9.99 for 2 beautifully-illustrated stories, plus Lesson as focus, Question pages, Trucker Terms, Maps…

 **Quite simply, in today’s market, we both offer a lot of bang (or bangle) for the buck.