I was going through a box of things from my childhood my parents have collected throughout the years, and I came across some short stories I had written. I’d like to reproduce a couple of them here. These are selections from a book called, The Bubblegum Factory and Other Stories! Unfortunately, there is no year written on it, so I’m not sure how old I was when I wrote these, but if my faulty memory serves me correct (and the calculation in the first story), I was either in first or second grade. All spelling, grammatical, and punctuation mistakes have been faithfully transcribed. Here goes:
America
Once upon a time we were all british. Bunches of people wanted to be American. We had a war. All the people that wanted to be an American hoped they wold win. The flag had 13 stars and 13 stripes. America won the war. Right now America is 225 years old. The flag has 50 stars, but still only 13 stripes.
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The Lonely Penguin
Chapter 1
Once opon a time there was a lonely penguin. It was sad. It wanted a friend. It looked all over the antartic. It caught a cold. Then one day the penguin fairy gave them a baby penguin. It grew fast. Then it wanted a friend too. Then one of them said do you want to be my friend? OK the other one said. They lived happily ever after.
By Joey Hall.
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Bubba and the Bubble Gum Factory
Chapter 1
Once upon a time there was a bubble gum factory. It sold bubble gum. One day it didn’t work. Everyone was sad.
Mary tried to fix it with her pliers but it didn’t work. All the people cried
. Then one day Bubba made a machine that could fix everything. I found the problem he said. I found it Someone stuck a tool in it. Who did it?
By Joey Hall.
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Bubba and the Bubble Gum Factory
Chapter 2
Once upon a time there was a mystery. It was from the bubble gum factory.
We were trying to figure out who put the tool in the factory. It seemed like we looked all around the world. Then we saw him. It was a robber. We sent him to jail.
By Joey Hall
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I suppose we all have to start somewhere…
The Original Oxford Comma 
Every writer had to start somewhere. Were the childhood writings of Shakespeare. Steinbeck or Stephen King much different? Probably not. Well, maybe King, that dude is twisted. Thanks for sharing these Bub.
It’s always a wondering thing to look back and see a variety of difference in who you were and who you are. One can only hope that you end far exceeding where you thought you might go. Love ya.
It’s always nice to look back and see change. I’d say it’s nice to see growth here, but since these were written so long ago, growth is expected. Thanks for saving these. Love ya.