do you remember the first time...
...you ever got seduced by the American culture of praise?
I was 9, he was some kind of American teacher exchange student, and this was the result:
The Mysterious Men and the Okays
The Okays were sure that something was up. There were some strange men staying in the village who dodged (a)round the corner whenever someone came in sight. The Okays had tried to track them down and find out where they were staying, but it was no use, the men always shook them off, no matter what they did. Once they had caught hold of Olivia and twisted her arm right behind her back, so she could hardly stop herself from screaming, just then Keith came running round the corner bellowing “OY(,) STOP THAT…GET OFF HER NOW!” The man disappeared without a sound. The Okays had a Private Den, which they thought no-one else knew about. It was a deserted house and although they did not know it they were trespassing on private land. They used it o[n] Saturday evenings when they had nothing es else to do, and sometimes they held meetings there.
One night they had just finished racing (a)round their personal cycle track and had come back to the house to cool off. They flopped down on the dusty floor , panting, after a while they recovered and went to a cupboard in the old kithkitchen where they kept some sweets and cakes and other eatables. Half of them were gone! The drawer was all meemessed up and there were sweet wrappers and cake cases under ther the remains. It was then that Ossie noticed a cigarette end on the floor. Olivia said “It was probably just a tl tramp who came to get himself a drink and then he probably disco[ve]red our stores in that cupboard.” But the rest still thought it needed looking into, so as she had no other choice, Olivia reluctantly agreed. So they made their way up to their top secr secret den in the loft. It was big cardboard boxes, all facing inwards, each with a one of them had a small flap in it so it was easy to get in and out of. Inside e the cardboard d boxes they kept secret code beoke books and mysterious clues and bits of paper with just seemingly scu si scribble on them, but it was an ingeu ingenious code which they had m needed to practice.
The outside was covered in black polythene so that it looked like a wall water tank. Anyway they were going up to the loft. It was then that Karen sl spotted the sleeping bags. She gasped. Then they all saw them. They went in to to investigate. Kevin saw the fragments of a torn up note. They peiieced it together and found out that someone was planning to rob Nat Jones near the Car Mart! They put two and two together and decided it was the men. The robbery was to take place on Saturday at midnight. That left four hours to save Nat Jones! There was apparently a car van in the empty garage, and inevitably they would park in the Car Mart so, they made their plans. They would go to the van to remove the tax disc, but when they went they found the driving licence, so they took that instead. They dressed Keith in Toll Booth keepers clothes and put him in the Car Mart tollbooth. He was to stop the men by asking for their driving licence. Olivia and Karen were going to pretend to play tig or some other running game like races. When they saw the van they would run up the road to warn Keith that the men were coming. Ossie would send Crumpet across the road to delay the men so that the girls could get to the Car Mart before the med men did. Jevin was going to phone for the police when the men wer were trapped. It all went very well and the three villains were soon safely under lock and key - thanks to the Okays. “You know,” remarked a friendly policeman, with deep admiration, “You shouldn’t be the Okays, you should be the Brill Yants !,” and they all burst out laughing.
Presented with all the original idiosyncratic punctuation, grammar and corrections.
I'm assuming that the comprehension story this was based on must have been American, given the presence of a Car Mart, so if any of y'all ever had a nodding acquaintance with the Okays (Ossie, Olivia, Karen, Keith and Kevin) I'd love to hear about it.
I was 9, he was some kind of American teacher exchange student, and this was the result:
The Mysterious Men and the Okays
The Okays were sure that something was up. There were some strange men staying in the village who dodged (a)round the corner whenever someone came in sight. The Okays had tried to track them down and find out where they were staying, but it was no use, the men always shook them off, no matter what they did. Once they had caught hold of Olivia and twisted her arm right behind her back, so she could hardly stop herself from screaming, just then Keith came running round the corner bellowing “OY(,) STOP THAT…GET OFF HER NOW!” The man disappeared without a sound. The Okays had a Private Den, which they thought no-one else knew about. It was a deserted house and although they did not know it they were trespassing on private land. They used it o[n] Saturday evenings when they had nothing es else to do, and sometimes they held meetings there.
One night they had just finished racing (a)round their personal cycle track and had come back to the house to cool off. They flopped down on the dusty floor , panting, after a while they recovered and went to a cupboard in the old kithkitchen where they kept some sweets and cakes and other eatables. Half of them were gone! The drawer was all meemessed up and there were sweet wrappers and cake cases under ther the remains. It was then that Ossie noticed a cigarette end on the floor. Olivia said “It was probably just a tl tramp who came to get himself a drink and then he probably disco[ve]red our stores in that cupboard.” But the rest still thought it needed looking into, so as she had no other choice, Olivia reluctantly agreed. So they made their way up to their top secr secret den in the loft. It was big cardboard boxes, all facing inwards, each with a one of them had a small flap in it so it was easy to get in and out of. Inside e the cardboard d boxes they kept secret code beoke books and mysterious clues and bits of paper with just seemingly scu si scribble on them, but it was an ingeu ingenious code which they had m needed to practice.
The outside was covered in black polythene so that it looked like a wall water tank. Anyway they were going up to the loft. It was then that Karen sl spotted the sleeping bags. She gasped. Then they all saw them. They went in to to investigate. Kevin saw the fragments of a torn up note. They peiieced it together and found out that someone was planning to rob Nat Jones near the Car Mart! They put two and two together and decided it was the men. The robbery was to take place on Saturday at midnight. That left four hours to save Nat Jones! There was apparently a car van in the empty garage, and inevitably they would park in the Car Mart so, they made their plans. They would go to the van to remove the tax disc, but when they went they found the driving licence, so they took that instead. They dressed Keith in Toll Booth keepers clothes and put him in the Car Mart tollbooth. He was to stop the men by asking for their driving licence. Olivia and Karen were going to pretend to play tig or some other running game like races. When they saw the van they would run up the road to warn Keith that the men were coming. Ossie would send Crumpet across the road to delay the men so that the girls could get to the Car Mart before the med men did. Jevin was going to phone for the police when the men wer were trapped. It all went very well and the three villains were soon safely under lock and key - thanks to the Okays. “You know,” remarked a friendly policeman, with deep admiration, “You shouldn’t be the Okays, you should be the Brill Yants !,” and they all burst out laughing.
Presented with all the original idiosyncratic punctuation, grammar and corrections.
I'm assuming that the comprehension story this was based on must have been American, given the presence of a Car Mart, so if any of y'all ever had a nodding acquaintance with the Okays (Ossie, Olivia, Karen, Keith and Kevin) I'd love to hear about it.