In Class Margery & Bengie

Needles, Marbles, Diamond Necklace

There was once an old lady named Margery who lived right outside of a small town called Peachville in Ringgold, Georgia. Margery didn't work, nor did she have any outside family that anyone knew of. Except for of course her two cats, Bonnie and Frederick. Margery is 87 and a half years old, turning 88 on December the 26th. She is about 5'4, her long hair is a soft pearly white with a few silver highlights here and there. Her eyes are a soft gray blue surrounded by chicken feet from years and years of laughter. No one really knows much about Ms. Margery, except that she goes to the market to pick up her groceries every Monday afternoon, and she stands in the same old check out line that Mr. Ben works. On most days, when you walk by her house, you'll find her out in her yard, tending to her garden, or sitting on her rocking chair that lives on her porch, just swinging away without a care in the world. If you stop to say hello, you cannot leave without her telling you about her three absolute favorite items: her case of needles, little pouch of marbles, and her diamond necklace. Her story is one to hear- but I'll leave it to Margery to tell you about it. I'll give you a hint though, her story is made up of striving to make ends meet by sewing night and day, playing marble matches to win a ticket, and a diamond necklace from the love of her life.


Book on dream analysis, Matches, Tightie Whities

Up in Iceland, where the grass is green, and the mountains are high, there is a little nook in a pile of stones where a little hobbit man named Benjie resides. Benjie is a curious fellow. His skin is a dark olivey green color, and his hair is raggedy brown and stiff. He wears a striped hat on his head, always has a match behind each ear, carries a book on dream analysis in his hands at all time, and you can be sure, he never goes anywhere without a clean pair of tightie whities in his front left pocket. Benjie's age is uncertain. He looks as though he could be 43, or maybe 29, or perhaps 107. The features of Benjie's face would never tell. The days are all the same for him-consisting of the same routine. He wakes up from his little place under the cool stones to go to a tree that never has any leaves and sit and read his book on dream analysis. He reads the book entirely each day-sometimes upside down, other times backwards, and every once in awhile he just recites the book outloud. He then goes back to his stones to change into whiter pair of whitie tighties so he can go out and collect a hand full of leaves, along with a bundle of sticks. He takes this arm load down to the stream, over to this ginormous tree where he has made himself a little playroom. Inside he lays down the sticks and leaves in the middle of a fire ring, and he strikes a match to start a fire.


Margery and Benjie Meet

Ms. Margery's neighbor of 25 years, is 29 year old Felicity Caroly who is a school teacher at Peachtown Elementary School. Margery has always taken care of Felicity and she never knew how to pay her back. Margery never got out to do anything, she was never interested in receiving house help or moving into a Nursing Home facility- she was content where she was. It was coming up to Felicity's class Christmas Party and she thought she would invite Margery to come along. Margery agreed to join Felicity and her young class of students for their Christmas party that December 21 evening and it changed her life around. While the boys and girls were eating their sugar cookies and building their gingerbread houses, there was a knock on the door. Felicity went to answer it, and there was a Santa Claus in a bright red suit with rosy cheeks, just gleaming and holding a sack full of gifts. Felicity knew there was supposed to be a surprise visitor so she invited him in. Every child had a chance to see Santa to tell him what he or she wanted for Christmas this year, and each one got a gift they had desired. When it came time for Margery's turn, she said that there was nothing that she wanted that he could give to her. He chuckled to himself, because he knew exactly what it was she had been wanting all of these years. He told her to just wait, he was going to make her wish come true. After the children had gone home and everything was cleaned up, Santa Claus asked Margery to come up to the roof with him for a minute. Felicity said good bye and winked at Santa as she walked out. Margery went up and right in front of her was a sleigh with reindeer all lined up and gnawing on apples as they waited. Santa looked at her and said, “you're finally going to get to meet him”. Margery smiled and said “at last”. She steadily climbed into the sleigh, a covering came around them so that they didn't get too cold, and after a jolt, they took off. After what seemed like a few minutes they arrived. She gently stepped off the sleigh, said goodbye and thank you to Santa and then took a deep breath- “Iceland, we meet at last”, she said.
Ahead of her, she could see a tree by the stream glowing, and she knew exactly what it was. She walked over, and knocked lightly on the door. Little hobbit man, Benjie, opened the door. He made almost a purring like sound as a grin took over his face, and took a step over so that Margie might come in. She took a seat by the fire and Benjie began brewing tea.
Years and years ago, Margie had dreamed of going to Iceland. Her favorite story she had read as a girl, took place there. There was no way she could ever afford to go, because her family was poor. Her mother gave her a case of needles for her birthday, and that was when Margery began to sew. She sewed and sewed, altering wedding gowns, crafting stockings for little boys and girls at Christmas time, and even making little sweaters for puppy dogs in the fall. One day, little hobbit man Benjie came in with nine pairs of pants that were way too long for him. She sewed them up, and when it came time to pay, Benjie handed her what he owed her, and a little sack of marbles. Margery had never played with marbles before, so Benjie taught her. One morning, Margery was reading the daily newspaper and saw an advertisement: “World's Greatest Marble Player in town! Beat Him and Win Tickets to Iceland!” it read.... to be continued.