Nana Meets Lawrence, The Sea Snail

Nana and Pops Martin spend the Winter each year in Sarasota on the West Coast of Florida.   Nana loves the Ocean and The Gulf of Mexico which is very much like an Ocean.   Every morning Nana and her friend Marge take a long walk for exercise.  One day Nana and Marg decided to go to the beach on Siesta Key.  In Florida, small islands are called Keys and on the coast near Sarasota there are many such keys; Long Boat Key, Casey Key, Bird Key to name a few.  

Other Florida Keys

Siesta Key Beach is famous for its very white fine sand.  It is actually crushed shells and is as fine as powder. Also, this fine sand does not hold the heat of the Sun and therefore does not burn your feet when you walk bare foot on it.  Siesta Key Beach is also very long and deep. Walking on the beach is easy if you stay near the water’s edge in the wet, hard sand.

While walking near the water Nana and Marge found several sea shells that washed ashore during high tide earlier in the day.  So, when they finished their walk they drove home from the beach with their shells.

Siesta Key Beach

When Nana got home she put her shells on Pops’ work bench and told Pops about her walk and the shells.  An hour or so later pops went into the garage to fetch a tool and saw the prettiest of the shells on the garage floor.

“Hey Nana,” Pops said “One of your shells fell off my bench!”   Nana replied, “How can that be, I put them in the middle of your bench.”   “Well come see,” said Pops.  Nana went to the garage and saw the shell and it was moving!

Lawrence on the floor of Pops’ Garage

“Oh My” said Nana this shell is alive!  Pops said, “it appears to be a large sea snail.”  Nana said, “what shall I do?”  Pops said “Well, it would be a crime against the environment, a crime against nature and just not right to keep it. We must return LAWRENCE to the sea.”   Nana said, “LAWRENCE?”    “Yes” said Pops. “You know that some sea snails are called Whelks or Welks, so I have named him LAWRENCE after the orchestra leader of the 1950’s, Lawrence Welk.” 

“Pops you are too funny,” said Nana.  “I’ll get a pail and put Lawrence in some water until I can return him to the sea” Not knowing what or how to feed Lawrence, they hoped he would not get too hungry during the night.  

Lawrence in his pale for the night

The next morning Pops and Nana drove to Siesta Key Beach.  Nana said, “Stay in the car Pops, I took Lawrence by mistake and I will return him to the sea.”  

So, Nana walked the wide beach and into the water where she gently let Lawrence go.  As she walked away she thought she heard a little voice say, “Thank You”.   Oh, she thought, that must have been the sea breeze hitting a wave.  Was it the sea breeze or was it Lawrence?

Nana Says Goodbye to Lawrence

A Very Happy Ending.

Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved

Mommy, the Sofa Ate Violet!!!

©2017 All rights reserved



Tim, and his baby sister Violet lived with their Mommy and Daddy in Austin, Texas.  One day Mommy said “Let’s go visit Nana and Pops in Florida.  It is a bit cold here in February and it’s much warmer at Nana and Pops’ and we can swim in the pool and go to the beach. “Yippee,” said Tim, “Gurgle, gurgle,” said Violet.  The very next day they were off to Nana and Pops’ house in Florida.  They flew on a big airplane and Tim and especially Violet were very good passengers.  Nana and Pops picked them up at the airport and drove to their house.  The drive was an hour long through big trees and over bridges spanning lovely bodies of clear water.  

When they arrived, Mommy settled them in the spare bedroom.  Tim immediately took his toy soldiers and small toy cars into the living room to play.   Nana and Pops had two large sofas with big cushions and pillows. “What a great place to play with my toys,” said Tim as he jumped up on one of the sofas.  Violet said “Gurgle, gurgle” as she crawled on the living room rug. They both liked the living room very much.  They had a very busy day.

The next morning after Mommy and Nana fixed a very good breakfast, Tim and Violet were off to the living room to play again.  Tim new he had eight toy soldiers and 5 little cars, but he could only find 5 toy soldiers and three cars. What happened to the other toys?

Tim searched everywhere in the living room and could not find them. He asked Violet if she saw them and she said “Gurgle, gurgle.”  

So, Tim went into the kitchen and told his Mommy and Nana about his missing toys.  Nana laughed and said, “I think the sofa ate them.”  Tim said, “What?” Nana said “Come with me and I will show you.”  So, they went into the living room where Nana pulled one of the big cushions off one of the sofas.  Nothing there except a few crumbs.

Then she pulled the cushions off the other sofa and bingo there were Tim’s missing toy soldiers and cars.  Nana said, “See the sofa ate them.”  They all laughed and Violet said, as she crawled on the rug, “Gurgle, gurgle.”

Every day Tim, Violet, Mommy and Nan and Pops went to the pool.  Tim was learning to swim and Violet loved splashing the water from her tugboat floater.  In the afternoon, Tim and Violet were tired and they took a nice nap.

After their nap, they would again play in the living room.  Tim would say, “Wow look at my cars go’’ and Violet would say, “Gurgle, gurgle.”

One afternoon while they were playing, Violet was crawling and investigating the living room from ground level.  Tim saw her by a big sofa.  When he looked again he could not see Violet only her little feet sticking out from under the sofa.  Within the next second she was gone! No sign of little Violet.  Tim, remembering what Nana had said about the sofa eating things, became alarmed and yelled as loud as he could, “Mommy the sofa ate Violet!”

Nana and Mommy came running from the kitchen, where they were preparing Dinner.  “Tim where is Violet?” Mommy asked.  Tim said in the sofa! The sofa ate her!  Nana and Mommy rushed over to the sofa and pulled off one big cushion.  “No Violet here!” they exclaimed.  Then they pulled the second cushion.  “No Violet here either!”  Then they heard a faint sound coming from the sofa, “Gurgle, gurgle.”  “Violet!” Mommy and Nana kneeled down at the same time and lifted the skirt at the bottom of the sofa and there smiling very happily was Violet, “Gurgle, gurgle”!   Everyone laughed, the sofa didn’t eat Violet, she just found a very snug hiding place!

The End

©2017 All rights reserved