A few weeks ago I performed a 45 minute storytelling session for my grand-daughter’s first grade class. I dressed as a farmer and called myself "Cletus." I said that as a farmer in western Nebraska, I planted different kinds of crops such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and sugar beets. I told them that I had come to their class that day to plant a different kind of crop altogether. I was there to plant seeds of wisdom and each child was the ground on which I would sow my seeds. Each wisdom seed comes wrapped in a story.

I told a few of Aesop’s Fables with the help of a few puppets and all the children seemed delighted with the tellings. But afterwards, when I didn’t hear anything from the school for several days I began to wonder. Then my grand-daughter came to our house for a family get-together and brought for me a "thank you" poster signed by all the children in her class. Stapled to the poster were hand written letters of thanks to Cletus. Each letter had a drawing of either Cletus or one of my puppets at the top of each page. The following are some of those letters, unedited. Each began with, "Dear Cletus,".

"I liked the bat story. It was cool. Thank you for telling us the bat story. Landon"

"Thank you for telling us a story. The bear story was the funniest! from Danny"

"I liked the story about the bear hoo lost his temper. It was so funny! It also tot me a leson. from Parker"

"The story that I liked was the Lion and the mouse. I like the bear story too. You acted very well! from Tyler"

"Thank you for telling us storys. It was very funny! I like your storys. I hope you come back soon. My favorite story was the lion and the mouse. your friend, Sarah"

"Thank you for coming. You were so funny! My favorite one was the bear one. And the lion and the mouse. from Kellen"

"Thank you for telling us storys. They wer good. And my favorite won was the tortis and har. It was good. from Cole"

"Thank you for coming to school. My favorite is the bear one. from Maddie"

"I liked the stories. Thank you for coming to are class. You are goud at akting. My favorite story was the bear stories. from Eden"

"Thank you for coming and telling us stories. You entertained us a lot. My favorite story was the bear one. from Emily"

"Thank you for telling us some stories. They were funny. My favorite was the bear story. Harry"

"How are you doing? My favorite story was the golden egg. You are relly funny! I had so much fun! Thank you! from Chase"

"Thank you for telling us stories. It was funny when you yelled. My favorite story was the baer lost his temper. It was funny when the baer was like ’ya we hibernate.’ Your friend Sarena I love you"

The class teacher added a note saying, "You were a hit."