" They were just so all-around awful you could hardly believe they were real. Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude Ollie and Gladys - six skinny, stringy-haired kids all alike except for being different sizes and having different black-and-blue places where they had clonked each other."
If you have read Beverly Cleary's masterpiece, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, you would recognize the Herdsman ANYWHERE. This is one of my time fave books ever, right up there with Walter, The Farting Dog - but that is for another holiday so when I found them living next door to my grandkids, I felt both excited and a sense of dread. It would be a long time before there would be any sort of interaction between the kids but this fall - it happened.
M, aka Imogene is now in second grade with Keaton. One of his friends comes home with him several times a week while his mommy is working and somehow, it felt right to TRY letting the kids play together. Now before all this took place - Imogene had been over, lots. Lots and lots and lots of door ringing.
"Can Keaton play? She did this forever, never taking no for an answer. I guess it finally paid off. I can only imagine she saw this as a victory of sorts.
"As far as anyone could tell, Imognene was just like the rest of the Herdsman. She never learned anything either, except dirty words and secrets about everybody".
One day Keaton tells me, I know what a child molester is! There had been issues in their community but in my heart, I knew who had shared this tidbit with him - Imogene.
Soon, her older sister and brother were coming over too. I was about as nervous as a - well, I was very nervous - still am. At Halloween, I saw how they operated as a team and they could wipe out a bowl of halloween goodies in no time. You just get a sense being around them.
They are worldly - way pass my grandkids. The first time I met Imogene, I felt like I was meeting a rival on my level. She still gives me that feeling everytime I am around her.
My favorite Story happened a few weeks ago. The kids are feeling quite comfy now, and ask for snacks all the time. They will send in Keaton and Gage to do asking but the original thought is coming from Imogene and Ollie.
That day, my daughter hears Imogene yelling, "Hey , can we get some snacks out here!"
In true herdsman style, I knew we had arrived. To their credit, they are nice to the boys and that is why they get to come over. Their family life is as a true Herdsmans and their survivor skills come as a result of that - that , I can so identify with.
" But as far as I'm concerned, Mary is always going to look a lot like Imogene Herdman - sort of nervous and bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who lays a hand on her baby. And the Wise Men are always going to be Leroy and his brothers, bearing ham."
The Story of the birth of Jesus hasn't never been told so eloquently as this one. It is a Story about who we are and what we are willing to believe. I always knew it had to be a real Story. One thing I have always wanted to do is to see this done on the Big Screen - we can do it now, I found the Herdsmans...
