fiction by an eight year old me

I found this while going through stuff in my garage. This was written by me in January of 1992 making me 3 months shy of being 9 years old. I wrote it during a trip to winter camp with my church and actually purchased the little note pad while I was there. Here it is in its unedited glory...

"The Trip to CAMP" (yes, I capitalized all the letters of 'camp')

Once there was a girl named Shelly. She was 4 years old. One day she was driving up to camp with lots of people. Suddenly the van stoped. The driver said that they needed chains, so the driver got out and started to put chains on the wheels. Suddenly Shelly got up, turned the key, and went forward. The driver got ran over. The kids in the van were mad because who is going to drive them to camp? Shelly decided to drive. She took a wrong turn and they ended up in Las Vegas. Shelly didn't know what to do. They checked in to a hotle for the night. The next day they called home and asked what they should do?  They said that in afew days they would come, so they were stuck there for awhile. They stayed there for days, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, months turned into years, years turned into decade, and finally when Shelly that was four turned sixty they finally came. By then they all got married and had kids, and their kids had kids, so the people on the trip to camp that got stuck were grandmas. They were pretty happy with their lifes, but they were thrilled when someone came to get them. They got home and everything had changed, so much that they didn't even recognize their houses. Weeds were growing everywere. There were also beautiful flowers like poppies, tulipps, and roses. They started garding right away, they pulled weeds, but kept flowers. At the end of the day the yard looked fantastic. After that they went to bed. The next day was Saturday, so they slept in. They woke up at lunch time. When they did wake-up they had a welcome home party for the kids that got stranded, and they lived happily ever after.

The poor bus driver... nobody cared that he was run over... only that they were without a ride to camp. I love the image that pops into my head of a bunch of grandmas waiting around in Las Vegas for their parents to come pick them up. And even after starting families and everything they are so excited to get back home. But oh no! Apparently the kids all were responsible for the weeding at their homes... Better get right to the important stuff: gardening (or "garding" as I wrote). I am impressed that I knew when to use their and there. Not bad for a little kid, huh?