Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Nobody Puts The Pony In A Cosy

Newmentia is having a book fair. Today after school, teachers were allowed a sneak preview. The Pony ducked his head and mumbled no when I asked if he would be checking it out. He's usually rarin' to go, the first one out of the starting gate when book fair time rolls around.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to look at the books?"

"I do. But I'll just wait until tomorrow when it opens."

"When will you have time?"

"After school."

"You have academic team practice. The last one before your first meet on Saturday."

"Oh. I'll look before our coach gets down there."

"Are you afraid to go today because the announcements said it was a preview for teachers?"

"Not really."

"Isn't there Open Library on Wednesday afternoons anyway?"

"Usually. But today the librarian is going to teach people knitting!"

"Oh, yeah. I saw that in the announcements. So you don't want people to think you're there for knitting?"

"Not really."

"They'll know you're there for the book fair! You're ridiculous."

I went to my parking lot duty. Then stopped by the library on the way back to my room. It was me and two other teachers. No knitting. The librarian said the knitting student stood her up. As I was browsing the books, my phone rang. My mom was in my room, having brought some snacks for The Pony. I told her I couldn't talk. I was in the library. And that it was only me and two other teachers. No knitting. She relaid the message.

The Pony was there within 30 seconds. He found two books. We agreed that they will be for Christmas. The Pony high-tailed it back to my room. The librarian fears that he doesn't like her, because he never comes to the library. I explained that he has his own books and authors, and rarely strays from them. She thought maybe he didn't like to touch books that everyone else touches. We have a teacher like that, she said. I assured her that's not the case. She found a science fiction magazine they get every other month. "Take this to him. He might like it. We have more if he does."

The Pony seems interested. And relieved about the absence of knitting.

3 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...

I guess he's snubbing knitting because it's so much simpler than crocheting. I don't blame him. Those people who only knit and pearl have nothing on people who can crochet granny squares and execute all sorts of other fancy stitches.

I completely agree with him, even though I can only knit and cannot crochet a single stitch. But tell The Pony I applaud his steadfastness. He must be strong to avoid the pull of other yarn arts. (Bargello and crewel work should be avoided at ALL costs. Make sure he knows this.)

Hillbilly Mom said...

Sioux,
I will pass on that information. We wouldn't want him to take up the hobby, knit a sweater, and then have some Humpty Dumpty with a melon head stretch it out.

The horror of observing a bulbous head struggling to find its way through the normal-size neck hole of a finely knit sweater is not going to be in MY Pony's future!

Sioux Roslawski said...

Of course not. If that happened, he might bear a grudge--for years--and would be forced to confront them, still seething.