This is a story that I told to my children three times a day, EVERY day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why they loved it so much, I will never know, but without it I think that mealtime would have been a disaster. Believe it or not, they still get a kick out of hearing the story. So do all of my grandchildren.

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Sooty. Sooty lived in a really nice house with his Mommy and Daddy. Sooty was a good little boy, and always listened to his Mommy and Daddy when they told him what to do.

One day while Mommy was making dinner, Sooty asked her if he could go outside and play. "No, Sooty", she said. "Dinner is almost ready." Sooty begged, but Mommy said "No." Sooty kept begging, "Please Mommy!" and finally Sooty's mommy said, " O.K Sooty, you may go outside to play. But don't wander away from the house." Sooty promised her that he wouldn't. He went into the backyard and started swinging on his swing. While he was swinging, he looked across the street and saw his friend Joey playing in front of his house. He called to Joey and asked him to come over to play, but Joey said he couldn't. Joey said, " Come on over to MY house Sooty".

Sooty forgot that he promised his mommy that he wouldn't wander away from the house, and he ran across the street. When he got there, Joey told him that there was a new flagpole that had just been put up in front of their school that very day. Joey had been down there in the morning watching all the workmen as they put it up. He told Sooty how high it was and that at the tippy top was a great big beautiful flag.

Sooty got SO excited and really wanted to see it VERY badly. He asked Joey if he would run down to the school with him to see it, but Joey said he couldn't because his Mommy almost had dinner ready.

    Well, what do you think happened? Sooty was SO excited about seeing the flagpole that he forgot all about the promise he had made to his Mommy, and he went down to the school to see it.

  School was only four blocks from his house, so it really didn't take him very long to get there. When he saw the beautiful tall flagpole going up to the sky , all he could think about was the story that his Mommy had told him about "Jack and the Beanstalk" and how Jack climbed to the top of the beanstalk, and how he got the gold. Before he even knew what he was doing, Sooty started climbing up the flagpole to see what he would find at the top.

       At first it seemed like a lot of fun, because Sooty was used to climbing trees in the backyard all the time. And he was a real good tree climber. BUT, the higher he got, the scarier it got, and when he looked down, he got SO scared, he didn't know what to do. He was afraid to come down, so he just kept going on up, until lo and behold, he finally reached the top. Well, he looked down , and he got REAL dizzy but he was SO high up that he didn't know how he was going to get down.

Climbing up was easy, but going down looked impossible.

In the meantime, back at home, Sooty's mommy had finished making dinner and was calling him to come in. She went to the back door and yelled, " Sooty, dinner's ready." but Sooty was nowhere to be found. After a few minutes went by, and he didn't come in, she went to the back door again and yelled, "Sooty, dinner's ready". But again, no Sooty. At this point she was getting VERY angry, and she went outside to look for him. She looked all over the backyard but naturally, she couldn't find him. Finally, she looked across the street and saw Joey playing in front of HIS house. She called across to Joey and said, "Joey, have you seen Sooty?" Joey answered, "Yes, Mrs Sooty. I think he went down to the school to see the new flagpole."

       Well, you can imagine how angry Sooty's mommy was , so she went marching down to school to find him.

Sooty...Dinner is Ready!!!

       When she got down to the school, you will NEVER believe what she saw! Gathered around the flagpole were lots and lots of people all looking up to the tippy top. Sooty's mommy couldn't imagine why they were all there, and WHAT they were looking at, so she looked up too.

        And what do you think she saw? Poor little Sooty, holding on as tight as he possibly could to keep himself from falling. She almost started to cry herself because she was so scared, but instead she shouted up to Sooty, "Sooty, Mommy's here. Hold on tight."

       When Sooty heard his mommy's voice, he started to cry. He called to her, "Mommy, please do something. I'm so scared and I don't know how to get down."

       Sooty's mommy put on her thinking cap , and she thought and thought. And what do you think she decided to do? She said to all the people there, "Let's make a big net of our arms and hands. There were so many people there at this point that it was pretty easy to do. Everyone gathered in a circle around the flagpole and put their arms out to form a big net to catch Sooty.