Grandma Chatterbox's
Little Red Riding Hood
by
Barbara Hayes
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First Published 2012
Copyright © Bretwalda Books 2012
ISBN 978-1-907791-95-6
Grandma Chatterbox has her own FACEBOOK PAGE where you can join the conversation or learn more about Fairy Stories.
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Little Red Riding Hood
By the way I am called Grandma Chatterbox because I read so many stories to my children and then my grandchildren that now I cannot stop chattering on about fairy stories to anyone who will listen.
Which brings me to the first thing I must do which is to make sure you are ready to start listening.
I must ask you that because I used to find that my children would say they were ready for a story, but really they were still thinking about something else.
Perhaps they were wondering if they could manage to have a slice of chocolate cake for breakfast instead of a boiled egg and bread soldiers.
Or perhaps they were trying to remember what they were supposed to take to school the next day - was it their games clothes or some crayons for the drawing class?
So Grandma Chatterbox would start her story and then the children would say: “Oh we missed that first part. Can you start again?”
And Grandma had to start all over again and Grandma does hate wasting time.
Do you hate wasting time too?
Anyway Grandma got into the habit of saying: “Stop thinking about other things and think about this: Are you ready for a story? ”
And when the children said “Yes please! ”
Grandma would start.
Weren’t they polite children to say ‘please’?
I expect you are always polite too, aren’t you?
So:
Are you ready for a story?
“Yes please.” I am sure I heard you saying.
(“At last!” I hear some of you saying!)
So here we are:
Long ago and far away there lived a girl called Little Red Riding Hood. Of course that was not her real name, but no one seems to remember what her real name was.
Apparently this little girl was very nice and good (just like you I'm sure) and her grandmother was very fond of her.
Now in those far away days before there were lots of shops where you can buy all sorts of clothes, people used to make their own clothes. One year Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother bought some very pretty red material and made it into a cloak with a hood for her granddaughter, who of course was not at that time called Little Red Riding Hood.
She was called by her real name, but no one ever seems to remember what that was. I’ve said that before, haven’t I?
But grandmas are always forgetting things and saying them again, have you noticed that?
Anyway this little girl loved the red cloak and hood so much that she wore it every time she went out. So when people saw a flash of red colour coming along the path, they used to say: “Look here comes that little girl with the red cloak and hood.” And in the end they just said “Look, here comes Little Red Riding Hood” And that became the little girl’s name.
Would you like to be called after something you wear?
Perhaps you wear a navy blue raincoat for school.
Would you like to be called: Little Miss Blue Raincoat?
Probably not.
But long ago and far away people did things differently.
Now in those long gone days there were not nearly as many people as there are now. There were no cars, nor railways, certainly no aircraft. And there were not lots of big wide roads going all over the countryside.
This meant that there was plenty of room for forests to grow over miles and miles. And in these forests lived lots of wild animals - deer, foxes, rabbits, bears, birds and of course WOLVES!
Parts of the forest was so thick with trees growing tangled up together that they were dark and frightening and people never went into them.
But people did live in parts of the forest - mostly those parts nearer the edge.
Lots of families made a living from the forests, cutting down trees and trimming them up into the right shapes for people to make into houses or boats, or carts or furniture or all sorts of useful things.
Little Red Riding Hood’s father earned his living in the forest. He was called a woodman. The family lived in a comfortable cottage (which they had built themselves of course) and round about them were green glades where the trees had been thinned out and nuts and blackberries grew and lots of beautiful flowers bloomed and where some of the birds and squirrels were so tame that Little Red Riding Hood could play with them and have some as pets.
Of course there was no television.
I expect you would miss television if you had to live that old fashioned life wouldn’t you? Or do you think you would have liked that wild life in the forest?
Anyway that is how Little Red Riding Hood lived. As she had no brothers or sisters, she had to help both her mother and father in their work of earning money and growing and collecting enough food to eat and raising chickens for their eggs.
No popping down to the supermarket and buying six eggs in a nice box in those days!
One of the jobs Little Red Riding Hood had to do every day was to take her father’s dinner to him as he worked in the forest. Often Daddy worked quite a long walk away from home and coming home for dinner would have wasted his time.
He was always very pleased when Little Red Riding Hood walked out to him with a basket full of tasty food that Mummy had prepared.
So Little Red Riding Hood was quite used to walking through the forest - near her home anyway. Very few people went into the really deep, dark forest. It was too dangerous. That was where big fierce bears lived and where wolves hunted for food.
Luckily the bears and the wolves did not often go near the more open parts of the forest where humans lived. And it so happened that Little Red Riding Hood had never actually seen a wolf. Her parents did not talk about wolves much either because they did not wish to frighten their dear little girl.
Then one day instead of going into the forest to do his woodland work, Little Red Riding Hood’s father put on his nicest clothes and said it was the day of the big Archery Contest.
An Archery Contest was when people shot with their bows and arrows at a target and whoever hit the target best and most got a lovely prize. And those who came second and third got prizes too and they all got to chat and meet old friends they did not see very often and people had a very nice time.
So that day as Little Red Riding Hood’s father was not working in the forest, she did not need to take his dinner to him.
At first Little Red Riding Hood thought she would have a day off work and she would be able to play with her pet dog, Bran, and her pet raven, Ralph and pet dove, Lily.
However Mummy was rather worried about Grandma ( you remember, the one who had made the riding hood and cloak). This grandma had not been well. Also she lived quite a long way deeper into the forest and no one went to visit her much.
So Mummy said to Little Red Ridi
ng Hood “As you do not have to take Daddy’s dinner to him, I should like you to take a basket of nice things to Grandma, as she has not been well and she may be getting short of food”.
Now as I have said before, Little Red Riding Hood was a very nice girl. Instead of saying she would rather play with her pets, Bran the dog and her raven and dove, she smiled and said of course she would take a basket of food to dear, old Grandma.
Mummy packed a basket with some fresh eggs from the chickens, some butter made from milk from the family cow, some cakes freshly made that day before and a bottle of wine.
In those days when you got water from a stream or a well, it often had dirt or germs in it and drinking it could make you ill. People drank wine (in France) or beer (in England) because the fruit and hops in it killed the germs and made it safer to drink than water.
That is why Mummy sent a bottle of wine to Grandma.
Aren’t we lucky to get nice clean water just by turning on a tap?
Grandma thinks so anyway.
On top of the food for Little Red Riding Hood’s Grandma, Mummy put a little parcel with bread and meat for Little Red Riding Hood to eat on the journey, as going to Grandma’s house was rather a long walk.
And of course there were no shops or cafes in the forest - just trees, trees and still more trees.
Anyway Little Red Riding Hood set off on her long walk with Ralph her raven and Lily her dove. Bran her dog had gone to the Archery Contest with Daddy.
As she wallked along she saw lots of beautiful forest flowers and she thought: “They would look pretty in