Rumer Godden’s 1955 novel An Episode of Sparrows (Bookshop|Amazon) centers on Lovejoy, a girl on a small street in post-war London who sets out to plant a garden. Her small setbacks and victories, seen largely through children’s eyes...
Jean in Greenville, South Carolina, shares a funny story about learning the term locoweed, which she learned from watching lots of Westerns as a child. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Child Hears About Locoweed” Jean...
In ancient Rome, kids played games with nuts — specifically walnuts. In a Latin poem from that era, “Nux,” a walnut tree describes some of those games. Nux is Latin for “nut,” the source also of nucleus, or “kernel of a...
Tracie in Madison, Wisconsin, shares her childhood misunderstanding about the town of Random, the place where she assumed that all sweepstakes winners were chosen. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Chosen at Random”...
A listener shares his youthful experience of misunderstanding the rules of baseball and what it means to run home, and Martha confesses to a similar goof as a junior-high-school-age basketball player. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript...
Nancy from Ithaca, New York, says her daughter read widely at a very young age, which meant she encountered the terms son of a gun and record long before she knew how to pronounce them correctly, which made for some amusing stories. This is part of...