I crept into my bedroom & slowly eased my

I crept into my bedroom & slowly eased my sock drawer open. There they all were, nestled together dreaming happy socky dreams. I knelt down, took out my melodica & tootled a

hypnotic melody. A black tube sock began to writhe and dancing. Then a pair of argyles coiled around each other, a frilly knee high rose & they all snaked out of the drawer towards

the snake charmer. Outside, children where playing with a wheelbarrow, taking turns in riding and pushing it. The younger one, Jimmy, heard a hissing sound coming from the window

. Jimmy dropped the wheelbarrow, tumbling his playmates into the dirt. The cobra looked down from the second-story window. "Do you know what day it is, boy?" it hissed.

Jimmy, with all the grit and mettle that a fourth grader could muster, spit a remarkably iridescent loogie into the dust and said, "I ain't getting you no Christmas goose, snake."

There was silence as the loogie spread in the dirt, coming to rest on the leeward side of a small dirt clod. Mesmerized by its iridescence, Jimmy didn't hear the recess bell

At this, Jimmy blinked, roused by the word "booger" and laughed. "Finally," I said, "Come on Jimmy, let's get to the

Green Mill to see Jimmy Jazz perform "he"s a jelly roll baker now" and "selling my pork chops", among other classic tunes heard nowhere else." Jimmy Jazz was now 102 years

and a day away from becoming a legend. Someday wise, intergalactic beings would recognize Jimmy Jazz's "Baby, You Can Ride My Gnu" as the Answer to Everything. Who knew?