* Note: ‘If You Can’t Be There, Then Write A Story’, #4
By Grandpa
For Ben & Summer
Oh, what to do on a hot summer’s day…
That was the challenge facing the FROG, the HOG and the DOG on a hot summer day…

The first day of summer was so hot and the three friends, the frog, the hog and the dog were doing what good friends like doing on hot summer days, or any days, they were enjoying being together…
The day was too hot to hop, too hot to stomp and too hot to romp, nevertheless, the three friends knew just what to do…
The frog, the hog and the dog gathered along the edge of a nearby pond under a huge shade tree. While cooling my feet in the pond waters, I watched them with my trusty binoculars, as they tried their very best to stay cool…

The small friend, the green frog, sat on a lily pad in the pond, which helped cool its smooth skin…

Sometimes, it would slide into the water for a refreshing swim

The small frog thought that staying wet was the perfect way to stay cool on a hot summer day…
The big friend, the pinkish hog, flopped its rather big body in the muddy edge of the pond under a gigantic shade tree…

Because the hog was so big and so heavy, it sank into the soft mud, way up its wide sides, over its bottom and nearly covering its curly tail. The hog found the muddy water cool and comforting…
The big hog thought that laying in the mud on its side…

on its belly…

and on its back…

was a perfect way to stay cool on a hot summer day…
The medium size friend, the black and white dog with thick long hair, decided just to lay on the ground and rest…

The tall green grass nearly covered the dog’s eyes, nevertheless it could still see its friends by the pond, preferring to stay on dry ground, itself, deep in the blanket of soft, cool grass.
The dog thought that laying down and letting its tongue hang out the side of its mouth…

was the perfect way to stay cool on a hot summer day…
And while the frog, the hog and the dog relaxed under a shade tree, on a lily pad, in the mud, and on the grass, they could still see and speak to each other, friend to friend to friend, all about the fun times they have together…

And that is how the three friends, the frog, the hog and the dog stayed cool on a hot first day of summer…

What do you do with your friends to stay cool on hot summer days?

Steve B
June 2021
Steve thanks for kicking off summer with a carefree story!
who did the illustrations ?
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Michael, I like the way you described the story. This is the fourth I’ve written for my two grandchildren as a way to keep in touch during Covid. Surprise, I sketched the pictures. That’s the hard part because I’m not a drawer but it’s also fun. I appreciate your comment. Now, how do you stay cool?
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A delightful story!
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Thank you. Have a great day!
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Well done, Steve. Fun story.
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Thanks, John. It was fun to write/sketch it.
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I’ll bet.
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This Grandpa story is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!
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Thank you, Liz. I’ll divide the 3 ‘wonderfuls’ among each of my stellar characters. 😉!
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A very teacherly thing to do!
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I love this one the best! Is it me or are the illustrations getting better? I think these are wonderful.
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Thank you, Darlene. I hope the illustrations are getting a bit better but they’re ‘sketchy’, at best. It’s fun drawing them but I find that the hand doesn’t want to do what the mind sees. I’m so glad you liked the story. Stay cool!
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Bravo, Steve, this is your best story yet. You drawings are getting really good too.
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Thank you, Robbie. That’s my first ever ‘Bravo’. The drawings are fun to create. I just have to be careful not to get too complicated…yet!😉
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Robbie, do you think I should go for #3?
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I love this!
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