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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CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY

Season 3 Episode 7

Cooper is back from the attack of the hideous POLLEN ALLERGY! Thank you to Tabatha for filling in!

Thank you for downloading this episode.

👉The story begins at 02:01 and the tiny lessons begin at 14:30

👉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 2023 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.

First of all, I’m very sorry about last week. This year is the worst pollen allergy in ten years in Japan, and I had it really, really badly. Believe me, you did NOT want to hear my voice in your headphones last week. But today I’m doing a lot better and I have a new story for you. It’s about…well, do you know who Marie Kondo is? She’s a Japanese cleaning and organizing expert who’s super famous in the US, but not at all famous in Japan. Kinda funny how that works. Anyway, I love her method, but I also recognize that there are some issues with it. So, I decided to write a story about it. I hope you enjoy.

Sentimental Items

1.

“No,” said Jean. “We throw everything away. Everything that doesn’t make us happy. That’s what the book says, and that’s what we’re gonna do. And when we get done with it, we’ll just be surrounded by things that make us happy, and then we can be happy all the time.”

Her children looked at each other, sighed, and walked to their rooms. Jean called after them. “Think about it, do we really need your third grade report cards, Kevin?”

She put her hands on her hips and looked around. It was time to clean out the attic.

She pulled box after box after box out into the hall, opened the lids, and started dumping their contents onto the ground.

“Don’t forget to throw away by category,” she yelled down the steps. “Start with clothes, then books, then papers.” Following her own advice, she collected every single piece of clothing into a pile. Then she stood over it.

Most of it was easy.

Winter coats from elementary school? Send them to Good Will.

Tiny mittens, their fuzzy lining stolen long ago by mice? Garbage.

Her maternity dresses? Horrible garbage.

A photo album.

“Mandy,” she called, “Come look at this.”

Amanda appeared in the doorway. “Mom, I’m right in the middle of doing my clothes. What do you need?”

“Look at this album. It’s from Pawtucket back in the eighties. Here’s me and your Aunt Dottie on the pier. We must be….eight years old. Here’s your grandpa Frank cooking lobsters. Every year he would go down to Marten’s seafood and buy a dozen of the biggest lobsters you’ve ever seen. ”

“Mom, the book to save sentimental items for last. Don’t get distracted by that stuff. Just put it in a pile and deal with it later.”

“You’re right, we gotta...