Moe Goes Fishing

Tonight, Joe heard his first "Moe" story. For the uninitiated, when Ted and his sister Kate were little, their dad would make up stories at bed time chronicling the adventures of Ned and Kit. The stories tend to have a similar arc: Ned and/or Kit experience an activity very similar to something their namesakes did recently and usually involve explaining in great detail some otherwise small piece to the story (which was only fully realized and appreciated tonight because Ted found himself doing the same thing - a good delay tactic while you think of where to take the story). There are enough twists and turns to keep the listener on the edge of their bed, but all ends just peachy with the heros fully grateful for the experience and better for it somehow. So, before handing Joe off to Julie for the real story time, Ted had Joe nestle into the upstairs sofa for a Moe story. At first Joe was a bit confused, he didn't get the concept of lying back and listening - he was trying to see if Ted was holding a book, but after a couple lines to the story, he settled in.

The inaugural story told of how Moe went fishing with his Uncle Scott (admittedly, this was old material, but it is what came to mind and what Joe would want to hear about). As the first few lines were spoken, Joe started softly whispering the words right after like he knew the story, so he was told that this was a new story he hadn't heard, which quieted him down (so our narrator could concentrate). Our story was brief, and it found Moe and his Uncle Scott off to fish. They sat on a big rock by a lake, Moe caught a fish and reeled it in (this is the part that got extra detailed: "and he kept reeling, and reeling, and reeling, and reeling...), and Uncle Scott caught it in a net. They then released it back to its friends. The End.

Immediately afterwards, Joe launched into his own Moe story, regaling Ted with a tale concerning any object he could spy in the room, it went something like this... "And Moe.......he.....had a computer....and a shirt was on it....and the light was on.....and he fell down. Was that so funny!?!?" A good time was had by all. Ted (or should I say Ned?) will work on his improv so Joe will look forward to more adventures with Moe and might even put up with hearing about Moe's little sister Sara.