The other kids always get the same old standard, boring bedtime stories.
So every day, at recess Erin gathers them under the jungle gym and tells them her father's stories. With a strange sort of wisdom in her 8-year old voice she makes the characters come alive as she tells the story of the Surgeons of the 4077th.
Their leader is trusty King Potter, a ruler who's seen it all and has a story for everything. He rides his sturdy mare to battle foes, and watches over his troops with a fatherly eye.
The wizard Hawkeye is a favored character among the kids. His magic fingers work wonders as his eyes see all of the world around him and his quick wit and charm mesmerize everyone he encounters.
They band together with the arrogant Lord Charles with loud music and receding hairline, the cowardly Frank, a bumbling squire who can never do right, the Page Radar, a lowly clerk who knows too much and the jester Klinger with fancy costumes and crazy ways. Sometimes the stories are graced by princess Margaret, beautiful but with a fiery stubbornness or the priest Mulcahy full of humble grace. And occasionally the fortune teller Sidney appears to look deep into a man's soul.
Together with a host of lords and ladies, peasants and warriors they band together to do battle. Against the evil lord Flagg and his army of confusion. Or the slimy red dragons which leave trails of blood across the country Or the evil cooks, attempting to pass poison off as food.
And each day at recess in the harsh California sun the kids are transported away to a land of vicious cold and ferocious heat; to a land of dust and strange food and stranger customs and each day is a new story, a new adventure, a new joke or prank or trick, a new crusade.
Each kid has a favorite character, each child begs to hear a favorite story over again, or more about a favorite character.
But listening to Erin's stories, watching the glint in her eyes, it's obvious there's only one hero for her: the white knight BJ, in shining armor on a charging steed, vanquishing from the world all that is evil or frightful leaving behind only love and hope.
So every day, at recess Erin gathers them under the jungle gym and tells them her father's stories. With a strange sort of wisdom in her 8-year old voice she makes the characters come alive as she tells the story of the Surgeons of the 4077th.
Their leader is trusty King Potter, a ruler who's seen it all and has a story for everything. He rides his sturdy mare to battle foes, and watches over his troops with a fatherly eye.
The wizard Hawkeye is a favored character among the kids. His magic fingers work wonders as his eyes see all of the world around him and his quick wit and charm mesmerize everyone he encounters.
They band together with the arrogant Lord Charles with loud music and receding hairline, the cowardly Frank, a bumbling squire who can never do right, the Page Radar, a lowly clerk who knows too much and the jester Klinger with fancy costumes and crazy ways. Sometimes the stories are graced by princess Margaret, beautiful but with a fiery stubbornness or the priest Mulcahy full of humble grace. And occasionally the fortune teller Sidney appears to look deep into a man's soul.
Together with a host of lords and ladies, peasants and warriors they band together to do battle. Against the evil lord Flagg and his army of confusion. Or the slimy red dragons which leave trails of blood across the country Or the evil cooks, attempting to pass poison off as food.
And each day at recess in the harsh California sun the kids are transported away to a land of vicious cold and ferocious heat; to a land of dust and strange food and stranger customs and each day is a new story, a new adventure, a new joke or prank or trick, a new crusade.
Each kid has a favorite character, each child begs to hear a favorite story over again, or more about a favorite character.
But listening to Erin's stories, watching the glint in her eyes, it's obvious there's only one hero for her: the white knight BJ, in shining armor on a charging steed, vanquishing from the world all that is evil or frightful leaving behind only love and hope.