Episode 14
Forty Stories - "Shelter"
I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper
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Season 3 Episode 14Thank you for downloading this episode.
👉The story begins at 01:50 and the tiny lessons begin at 11:40
👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!
👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/
A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.
All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.
Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Before we get started, I’d like to ask you a favor. If you’re enjoying the show, and you think it’s helping you learn, please go tell someone about it. The best thing you can do for a podcast is to share it with someone who might enjoy it. Thank you so much!
Today’s story is about camping. Do you go camping? I used to go a lot. But this year, since I moved to Chiba, I haven’t been yet. I really miss it. When I was a kid, I went to summer camp every year and it was amazing. Actually, I should make that one of the forty Stories. Hey, good idea!
Anyway, this story is called “Shelter,” and it’s about how frustrating it is to put up a tent. And some other stuff.
—---
The sky was orange and the clouds were pink. The sun’s reflection was sparkling in the lake, and my father was swearing quietly. “Dammit,” he said. “I told you, Evan. I told you we had to leave earlier. Now we’re gonna have to set up the tent in the dark.” His t-shirt was already soaked in sweat.
We arrived in front of the main office, and the car skidded a bit in the dirt. Dad sat very still for a moment. Then he slowly took his hands off the steering wheel. His fingers were white. He looked around at all the campsites full of happy families, and took a deep breath. “At least we have a reservation. Come on.”
We dragged all our gear past rows and rows of brightly-colored tents and fantastic barbecue smells. I could barely see over the bag of groceries in my arms , and I almost tripped over running, screaming kids. Pop music thudded from a speaker somewhere. Dad frowned and whispered to me, “Maybe other people don’t wanna listen to your crappy music, guys. Know what I mean, Evan?” I liked that song, but I didn’t say anything.
Finally, we came crashing into the last empty campsite. We threw all the equipment down and stood there for a moment sweating and breathing hard in the thick summer air. We must have looked pretty funny, because our neighbor smiled at us when he waved. This guy didn’t even have a tent, just a fancy-looking hammock hanging between two trees. He was sitting on his little cooler, smoking a cigarette and messing with his fire.
“Come on, Evan,” said Dad. “Let’s get this stupid tent up.” He stared at me, waiting for something. “The poles!” I found the bag of poles and tried to get one out. “Just dump them all out. Come on, man. We have to hurry. Everyone else is already eating. Look, just hold the pole. Just hold it right there, while I fix it on this side. It’s not that hard.”
He was sitting on the ground cross legged, trying to fit his end of the pole into the little loop at the corner of the tent and making little noises. It was hot and he pulled on the pole really hard and I lost my grip on my side of it. “Come on, buddy! What are you even doing to me here? Just hold it steady so we can get this thing up, and then we can eat!”
“I don’t know how to do this, Dad,” I told him. “You and mom always set up the tent.” As soon as I mentioned Mom, his face changed. His eyes closed, and his jaw got very hard. He let go of the pole, which flopped away from him. He stopped messing with the pole and looked up at me. “And now she’s not here any more, is she? So you and me gotta get it done. So just, like, get on my team for one minute here, you know?”
Once the tent was up, we had to start the bbq in the dark. Dad forgot to bring a lighter so he sent me out to ask one of our neighbors. I walked over to the single guy next door. He was smoking and messing around with the wood in his little grill. A half-empty bottle of whiskey was sitting on the ground next to his camp chair.
“Hi, sir, sorry to bother you. Do you have a lighter? My dad forgot to bring one.” The guy reached into a few different pockets before he pulled out an old, beaten-up zippo. He handed it to me without looking up from his fire. From behind me, I could hear my Dad say a truly horrible word, pause, then say it again, louder. I think he was talking to a chair.
“Seems like he’s forgotten a lot of stuff,” said the guy. He had an accent like he was from the South.
“Mom used to do a lot of the packing. Actually, she and my big sister used to do most of the stuff when we went camping. Dad really just drove and then drank a lot of beer.”
“And where’s everyone tonight?”
“Well, Mom moved in with her boyfriend, Sarah’s in college, and Alexander is staying at Mom’s house. So like, Dad is trying to do things like the old days, but it’s just the two of us.” I looked around at his campsite. “Do you have a family?”
“Yeah, but they’re not invited. This is my time,” said the guy. “I come out here, I do a little fishing, eat what I catch, and I drink that whole bottle of whiskey by myself. I don’t have to do anything for anyone, and I don’t have to listen to anybody’s nonsense. I just do what I like for two days.”
“My Dad quit drinking. He thought Mom would come back to him if he quit, but it was too late. She’d already met Brandon.”
“Sounds like he’s kind of a nut even when he’s sober. It’s probably for the best he quit.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely easier this way. Anyway, thank you for the lighter. I promise I’ll bring it back. My name is Evan.”
“No problem,” said the man. “My name’s Robbie.”
I thanked Robbie and started walking back to our camp. Dad had finished setting up the campsite and was standing with his hands on his hips, breathing heavily as he looked over his work. “Did you get it?” he asked.
I showed him the zippo. “Yeah. He’s a really nice guy.”
“More like a real weirdo,” said Dad. “Who the hell goes camping by themselves? The whole point of camping is to be with friends and family, you know?”
“I think maybe his home life isn’t so great.”
“That’s so sad,” said Dad. “Why doesn’t he just leave them if it’s so bad?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, and changed the subject. “What do we need to do to start this fire?”
—---
So that’s my camping story. I actually wrote that one last summer after a camping trip. It’s really strange to read it now, and see how much my writing style has changed in the last year. And, the Robbie character in this story, he’s based on a real guy I saw last year. This guy was doing exactly what Robbie does in this story. He was sleeping in a hammock, fishing, and drinking all by himself. And I wondered: does this guy have a family? What do they think about him camping by himself on the weekend? I mean we’ve met Robbie and we’ve met his family before. How do Kim and Cassandra feel about this?
Anyway, how about some tiny lessons?
The Big Picture is, I guess, a picture of a lake?
Here’s a question for you: why does Sam, Mr. Lewis, the dad, get so angry about everything? The answer is there, I think, but kinda between the lines. So maybe pause and think about it. I think the Dad is angry because his whole family has changed. And he’s really sad about it. And a lot of men, they don’t know how to be sad. They think it’s not ok to be sad. So they replace sadness with anger.
How about a dance at the Dictionary Disco?
Our first vocabulary word today is: crappy. Crap is a slang way of saying, well, poo. So if you say that something is crappy, you’re saying it’s like…poop. It’s not a swear word exactly. You can say it on television. Actually it’s kind of a more polite way of saying another word, which I’m not gonna say here, because this is kind of a family-friendly show.
The second word is: Flopped. This is a great word. It just means to fall down. But it’s like a very specific kind of falling. Kind of loose and undignified. Like if you’re very tired, you could flop down into a chair. But also, a movie that loses money? That’s a flop. It flopped. Kind of makes sense, right?
And finally, a lovely melody moment.
I want to talk about….biting your lip. Yes. Biting your lower lip. Like in “Evan” or “Flopped” the V and F sounds, those are called labiodental sounds. Labio means lips and dental means teeth. So literally the name of the sound is lips on teeth. In order to make them correctly, you’ve gotta touch your bottom lip with your top front teeth. So, if you’re saying Evan, or Flopped and you’re not biting your lower lip….bite harder!
Let’s do the credits.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 14(!) of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Chiba, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
Transcript
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Before we get started, I’d like to ask you a favor. If you’re enjoying the show, and you think it’s helping you learn, please go tell someone about it. The best thing you can do for a podcast is to share it with someone who might enjoy it. Thank you so much!
Today’s story is about camping. Do you go camping? I used to go a lot. But this year, since I moved to Chiba, I haven’t been yet. I really miss it. When I was a kid, I went to summer camp every year and it was amazing. Actually, I should make that one of the forty Stories. Hey, good idea!
Anyway, this story is called “Shelter,” and it’s about how frustrating it is to put up a tent. And some other stuff.
—---
The sky was orange and the clouds were pink. The sun’s reflection was sparkling in the lake, and my father was swearing quietly. “Dammit,” he said. “I told you, Evan. I told you we had to leave earlier. Now we’re gonna have to set up the tent in the dark.” His t-shirt was already soaked in sweat.
We arrived in front of the main office, and the car skidded a bit in the dirt. Dad sat very still for a moment. Then he slowly took his hands off the steering wheel. His fingers were white. He looked around at all the campsites full of happy families, and took a deep breath. “At least we have a reservation. Come on.”
We dragged all our gear past rows and rows of brightly-colored tents and fantastic barbecue smells. I could barely see over the bag of groceries in my arms , and I almost tripped over running, screaming kids. Pop music thudded from a speaker somewhere. Dad frowned and whispered to me, “Maybe other people don’t wanna listen to your crappy music, guys. Know what I mean, Evan?” I liked that song, but I didn’t say anything.
Finally, we came crashing into the last empty campsite. We threw all the equipment down and stood there for a moment sweating and breathing hard in the thick summer air. We must have looked pretty funny, because our neighbor smiled at us when he waved. This guy didn’t even have a tent, just a fancy-looking hammock hanging between two trees. He was sitting on his little cooler, smoking a cigarette and messing with his fire.
“Come on, Evan,” said Dad. “Let’s get this stupid tent up.” He stared at me, waiting for something. “The poles!” I found the bag of poles and tried to get one out. “Just dump them all out. Come on, man. We have to hurry. Everyone else is already eating. Look, just hold the pole. Just hold it right there, while I fix it on this side. It’s not that hard.”
He was sitting on the ground cross legged, trying to fit his end of the pole into the little loop at the corner of the tent and making little noises. It was hot and he pulled on the pole really hard and I lost my grip on my side of it. “Come on, buddy! What are you even doing to me here? Just hold it steady so we can get this thing up, and then we can eat!”
“I don’t know how to do this, Dad,” I told him. “You and mom always set up the tent.” As soon as I mentioned Mom, his face changed. His eyes closed, and his jaw got very hard. He let go of the pole, which flopped away from him. He stopped messing with the pole and looked up at me. “And now she’s not here any more, is she? So you and me gotta get it done. So just, like, get on my team for one minute here, you know?”
Once the tent was up, we had to start the bbq in the dark. Dad forgot to bring a lighter so he sent me out to ask one of our neighbors. I walked over to the single guy next door. He was smoking and messing around with the wood in his little grill. A half-empty bottle of whiskey was sitting on the ground next to his camp chair.
“Hi, sir, sorry to bother you. Do you have a lighter? My dad forgot to bring one.” The guy reached into a few different pockets before he pulled out an old, beaten-up zippo. He handed it to me without looking up from his fire. From behind me, I could hear my Dad say a truly horrible word, pause, then say it again, louder. I think he was talking to a chair.
“Seems like he’s forgotten a lot of stuff,” said the guy. He had an accent like he was from the South.
“Mom used to do a lot of the packing. Actually, she and my big sister used to do most of the stuff when we went camping. Dad really just drove and then drank a lot of beer.”
“And where’s everyone tonight?”
“Well, Mom moved in with her boyfriend, Sarah’s in college, and Alexander is staying at Mom’s house. So like, Dad is trying to do things like the old days, but it’s just the two of us.” I looked around at his campsite. “Do you have a family?”
“Yeah, but they’re not invited. This is my time,” said the guy. “I come out here, I do a little fishing, eat what I catch, and I drink that whole bottle of whiskey by myself. I don’t have to do anything for anyone, and I don’t have to listen to anybody’s nonsense. I just do what I like for two days.”
“My Dad quit drinking. He thought Mom would come back to him if he quit, but it was too late. She’d already met Brandon.”
“Sounds like he’s kind of a nut even when he’s sober. It’s probably for the best he quit.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely easier this way. Anyway, thank you for the lighter. I promise I’ll bring it back. My name is Evan.”
“No problem,” said the man. “My name’s Robbie.”
I thanked Robbie and started walking back to our camp. Dad had finished setting up the campsite and was standing with his hands on his hips, breathing heavily as he looked over his work. “Did you get it?” he asked.
I showed him the zippo. “Yeah. He’s a really nice guy.”
“More like a real weirdo,” said Dad. “Who the hell goes camping by themselves? The whole point of camping is to be with friends and family, you know?”
“I think maybe his home life isn’t so great.”
“That’s so sad,” said Dad. “Why doesn’t he just leave them if it’s so bad?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, and changed the subject. “What do we need to do to start this fire?”
—---
So that’s my camping story. I actually wrote that one last summer after a camping trip. It’s really strange to read it now, and see how much my writing style has changed in the last year. And, the Robbie character in this story, he’s based on a real guy I saw last year. This guy was doing exactly what Robbie does in this story. He was sleeping in a hammock, fishing, and drinking all by himself. And I wondered: does this guy have a family? What do they think about him camping by himself on the weekend? I mean we’ve met Robbie and we’ve met his family before. How do Kim and Cassandra feel about this?
Anyway, how about some tiny lessons?
The Big Picture is, I guess, a picture of a lake?
Here’s a question for you: why does Sam, Mr. Lewis, the dad, get so angry about everything? The answer is there, I think, but kinda between the lines. So maybe pause and think about it. I think the Dad is angry because his whole family has changed. And he’s really sad about it. And a lot of men, they don’t know how to be sad. They think it’s not ok to be sad. So they replace sadness with anger.
How about a dance at the Dictionary Disco?
Our first vocabulary word today is: crappy. Crap is a slang way of saying, well, poo. So if you say that something is crappy, you’re saying it’s like…poop. It’s not a swear word exactly. You can say it on television. Actually it’s kind of a more polite way of saying another word, which I’m not gonna say here, because this is kind of a family-friendly show.
The second word is: Flopped. This is a great word. It just means to fall down. But it’s like a very specific kind of falling. Kind of loose and undignified. Like if you’re very tired, you could flop down into a chair. But also, a movie that loses money? That’s a flop. It flopped. Kind of makes sense, right?
And finally, a lovely melody moment.
I want to talk about….biting your lip. Yes. Biting your lower lip. Like in “Evan” or “Flopped” the V and F sounds, those are called labiodental sounds. Labio means lips and dental means teeth. So literally the name of the sound is lips on teeth. In order to make them correctly, you’ve gotta touch your bottom lip with your top front teeth. So, if you’re saying Evan, or Flopped and you’re not biting your lower lip….bite harder!
Let’s do the credits.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 14(!) of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Chiba, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
