Jack Moore’s Reindeer

                                                             Karl Wallace
                                                   Jack Moore’s Reindeer


*December 6, 1941 on the bottom floor of the Loren Farr Elementary in Ogden, Utah, Miss Corey’s First Grade writing class assignment for the week: write a story about The Three Wise Men.

*Six months later Miss Corey along with the school Principal, Mrs. Light, declared Jack Moore would be held back one year.

*Jack Moore’s mother responded, "My boy will not be held back a year. I’ll go all the way to the Utah State Supreme Court if I have to.”

*Unaware of above stated happenings little six years old Jack Moore had written his assignment as best he could.


                                                 SANTA’S REINDEER


I don’t know any wise men so I’m going to write about Santa’s reindeer.


The reindeer is a mamal. It has six sides, right side, left side, front side and back side, topside
bottom side. On the back side sits a little tail which sends away the deer flies so they won’t get
little Barbie’s milk.

The front side is for growing horns each year, so now they have a place to be.

Reindeer can smell down hills and they smell from a long way, that’s why mountain air smells.

Horns are used to butt with. The horns shed all over the ground but you can’t find them because grownups put them on walls.

Its mouth is to eat with. The reindeer eats twigs but it doesn’t eat much, because it eats it twice and then it’s full.

The sides of Santa’s deer have straps to guide Santa’s sleigh. And they look the same on both sides and at Hardware Ranch too.

They have two big ears with lots of hair to hear good. They are the only ones that can listen to whispering pines.

Four legs are on their bottom side, they leave tracks in mud and snow like lobster legs. The long legs are for to jump, because they want to be free.

The man deer is called a buck. He is not a mamal. He has the other deer go first in the woods for his safety.

Dads like to shoot them in season. That’s why they look sad.

                                              HAVE A HAPPY CHRISTMAS

                                                        Love,              Jack Moore

They can fly I 
                                      don't               know                   
                                                                                    how    they
                                                                                                                                 Do it
                                                                     Post Amble

Andy Neil sat behind Jack and whispered in his ear,

"The three wise men are dead
Please, Mrs. Corry let us write something we know
Something we see, something that be
Stand up Jack and sing out loud.


That’s what its forie,

Use the lavatorie

That’s what its forie”



That fall Jack’s mom transferred Jack to the Quincy grade school located in downtown Ogden. Instead of walking one block to school Jack walked three miles so as to be able to be in the second grade. He eventually became a successful heart surgeon at Cornell University, and presently lives in St. George, Utah.

Andy Neil, passed on to second grade with Miss Cory’s blessings, and at a later time become a chicken farmer in Cache Valley, Utah.

To read more Karl Wallace short stories go: drkarlwallaceblog.blogspot.com