Sunday, July 5, 2015

Tyler and the Electric Pencil Sharpener

While I was in my computer room working on a story, I finished it and started to walk out of the room when I spotted my electric pencil sharpener. I stopped, picked it up and emptied the pencil shavings into the trash can. While holding the sharpener…it all came back to me…

When my grandson, Tyler, lived here for a while with his father and sister, it was like starting all over for me with little kids. My kids were grown; some were married with kids of their own. For a while my house was quiet with only me living in it. Now I had two little grandkids and their father living with me.

Tyler would wake up around 6:30 in the morning, and I would find him in my room, on my bed, waiting for me to wake up and play with him. I didn’t need to set an alarm because Tyler was my alarm clock, signaling morning.

We would start the morning off playing cards or any type of game, until I could drag myself downstairs for a much needed cup of coffee and feed Tyler breakfast. Our days were spent playing games, going outside, running errands, watching SpongeBob Square Pants, or me watching Tyler play television video games.

Tyler and I seemed to be joined at the hip. He never wanted to be left alone or play by himself. When I would want to work on some of my stories on the computer, I would bring in paper, coloring books, and crayons, and Tyler would sit down on the floor and work on his coloring or drawings. One day I saw my pencils and asked him if he would like to sharpen them. He did and I pulled out a huge plastic container and an old cigar box filled with pencils. Tyler went to town and loved sharpening those pencils.

The electric sharpener and those pencils filled up a lot of Tyler’s time. As he sharpened them, I wrote. We spent a lot of time together in that computer room. While Tyler lived with me, I never had to worry about sharpening any of my pencils, and I always had one to use when the other points wore down.


It is amazing what kids find fascinating and fun. Thanks to Tyler and my electric sharpener, they both kept me writing.

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