A Susie Ickle Story

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and are getting ready for the New Year! I just wanted to take the time to share a story my Great Aunt Lynda sent us all for Christmas. It's called a Susie Ickle Story The Next Generation. She used to tell these stories to my aunts and uncles, as well as my mom's cousins and their families. I'm so glad she started writing them for us now too! I hope you enjoy!

A Susie Ickle Story

The Next Generation

How the Kids Saved an Old Lady

Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was an old lady who lived in a house (part of the time) by a pond in the woods. The woods were lovely and sometimes a family of deer would come to visit. However, they stayed on the other side of the pond and didn’t speak English. They old lady grew up in an era when Deerish was not a common language, so it was hard to communicate. There were lots of beautiful fish in the pond and they often jumped out of the water and tried to talk to the old lady. Unfortunately, they only spoke Fishish, so the old lady could not understand what they said. She had taken a crash course to learn Fishish but never got the hang of it. When she tried to talk with the fish in their Fishish language, all the frogs would break out in a big belly laugh and go “Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit” in their own Frogish language. This made the old lady very grumpy.

She became so grumpy that she refused to take out the garbage and absolutely refused to burn the trash. Each day she got a little grumpier and the trash stack got higher and the garbage bucket began to overflow.

Then on day, when she was at her very grumpiest, the old lady got a call from the Katzes. They said they would like to visit. Well that made the old lady smile.

“Oh boy a visit from the Katzes!!!”

Then a call came from the Kropfs!!!

“Oh boy a visit from the Kropfs!!!”

Then a call came from the Strans!!!

“Oh boy a visit from the Strans!!!”

Then Paula called!!!

Oh boy a visit from Audrey, Paula, and Gray!!!”

Then Ben called!!!!

“Oh happiness, a visit from the Schemmels!!!”

Then the Sweets called!!!

“Oh more happiness, the twins are coming!!!!”

The old lady was so happy; she danced a jig as each family arrived.

Suddenly, a really nice thing happened. Benjamin, who knew Fishish went to the pond and spoke with the fish. The frogs were so happy they jumped up and down. They jumped so high that the water started to come onto the banks. So Jonathan and Jakob, who both knew Frogish, explained to the frogs that they would have to calm down or they would be evicted from the area and, truthfully, any other location but the pond put them in danger of being used for frog soup. Sydney and Lyndsey felt so sorry for the frogs that they stepped in and said (in frogfish of course, because they had both taken an online workshop on strange languages) “Don’t worry, Sydney can teach you sign language and Lyndsey will teach you all about the wonderful history of your ancestors, some of whom were great pianists. That way you can talk about your family background using sign language. Nobody will think of evicting you.” In the background, you could hear Charlie, Lukas, and Bobby giggling as they rolled around the grass acting like frogs, mimicking sign language, and pretending to play the piano.

In the meantime, Kathryn, Audrey, Gretchen, Shauna, and Rebeka said they would take out the garbage. So they carried the bucket to the edge of the woods and all took a handful, threw it into the woods as they shouted, “KLATZ”! This made the old lady laugh so hard she had to go in the house and change clothes. When she came back out, the Klatz bucket was empty and the garbage was gone.

Then Megan said, “Well I guess we better burn the trash. I’ll supervise and you can all help.” So Gretchen, Kathryn, Shauna, Rebeka, Audrey, Jonathan, Jakob, and Benjamin all took a stack of trash out to the burn barrel. Every one of them had a huge armful, as there was a lot of trash! (You could hear Benjamin say under his breath, “How could one old lady have so much trash!”) Soon they had a nice fire going and the trash was soon gone. The old lady was so happy because she was having so much fun and was laughing so much she forgot all about being grumpy.

That night they ordered pizza from Buds and had a wonderful evening playing games and telling stories. Bobby, Lukas, and Charlie fell asleep after the first story—they were so exhausted from giggling all day. Soon everyone was tired and they all went to bed.

The next morning, Megan walked into the living room and said, “Mommy, I had the craziest dream last night—I dreamed that fish and frogs could talk and Benjamin and Jakob and Jonathan could talk to them. I dreamed about tossing out garbage and burning trash.”

Susie, Patti, Teresa, Mary, Ben, and Paula all looked at each other, smiled and said, “Oh well Buds Pizza can do that to you sometimes!”

Moral of the story: For a crazy good time, get the Schemmel clan together and stay close with your family!

My Aunt Lynda is one special lady. She can make us all laugh and realize the true importance of family and Christmas as well as every day life. I hope you all enjoyed this story as much as my family did.

Hope you all have a great new year!