The Super Heroes and Fun Town

 

Well, it seems that the girl in the blue top and the girl in a multi coloured skirt and the boy in green were not just the saviours of Pugsy, the rainbow coloured bat and Mr Hedgehog, no, things are never just exactly what they seem.

 

For it turned out that they were actually Super Heroes in their own right! Yes, you heard me! Super Heroes!

 

How do I know? Aha, well, in the Time of Transition, as everybody knows, there were some who knew that making their town a Transition Town was going to save the world. And in a Transition Town, as everybody knows, everyone is a hero.

 

For in times gone by, in stories of old, there was but one hero, or maybe a heroine too, and everyone else was either a rescuer, or a big bad villain, and as everybody knows, no good came of that at all. For if you were not a hero, or a heroine, you must be a rescuer, and if you were not one of those, why, you must be a big bad villain, and nobody wants to be one of those, as we all know. So if you were not a hero, rescuer or big bad villain, why then you must be no one at all, and we all know that isn’t true, do we not?

 

So, as I was telling you, in our times, Transition times that is, everyone is a hero.  Gosh, well it turned out that the girl in the blue top could write like no one had ever seen the like of in many a year, and that the mum of the girl in the multi coloured skirt and the boy in green could make jam, ooh the like of which has never been tasted, and was known for her liking of Peace and Quiet, and how useful a skill this could be. The boy in green, well, sports were his thing, especially swimming, and he knew more about that that anyone could possibly tell and not only that, but he could make things too, like yurts and tents, and all manner of useful things could he build out of wood. And as for his sister, the girl in the multi coloured skirt, well, what did you expect, in a skirt like that, why she could sing and dance to charm the birds off the trees, though she wouldn’t do that for she loved nature far too much.

 

And as all good stories start, this one started with a challenge. Now for those of you who do not yet know, a challenge for a Transitionista, for so these brave super heroes were, and all the way from Transition Honiton, is a thing of great excitement, for a challenge means; A LOT OF FUN!

 

A LOT OF FUN!?! I hear you say. How can this be? Do not challenges mean things going wrong and a lot of hard work and complaining? Do words like Difficult, Hard come to mind? Well, if they do, you clearly have not read enough Transition Tales…

 

So, here be a Transition Tale, of the goodly folk of Fun Town.

 

‘Twas a long summer, and the young Super Heroes were sunning themselves, for there wasn’t a deal to do; after all, food came in plastic bags to the big shelf lined buildings where they went in small metal boxes with a wheel on each corner to collect it, and in school they learnt Facts and Figures, and about what other people had done, were doing, and were going to do, and clothes, well, they were made far, far away by people they had never met, and entertainment came inside a box with a screen and the people there they had never met either.

 

And then one day, came a challenge. What would you do, it asked, to celebrate when a child becomes a Teenager? Now that was a question worth answering, for does not every child become a Teenager, and who better to ask then, how it is this should be.

 

With a party of course! And pretty soon the Super Heroes had utilised their skills and dreamt up a day to remember, so that each and every Teenager would remember this special day for years to come. Drumming there would be, singing and  dancing, cakes with homemade jam, swimming lessons and more, and all of this would be written in a story by the girl in the blue top so that everyone would know the fun that had been had when they became Teenagers.

 

Phh, that’s no challenge, I can hear you say, and I say well, if it isn’t, where are all our tales of children being celebrated for reaching Teenagehood?

 

Well, just as our Super Heroes were relaxing after the party of all parties, came a new challenge, and it said that food would be rationed. Rationed! Ooh, well, now there’s a word not many like. Surely it will never come to pass that the big metal boxes carrying food in plastic bags will come less and less to the city that was not too big and not too small? But remember well, our SuperHeroes lived in the times when the dream of the Real Food Shop had come true, and looking about them they remembered their orchard, and their field where crops they could grow, animals raise, and barns they could build, and they laughed at the challenge and said why, you won’t bother us!

 

Food we can grow here aplenty, aye and have fun too! Grow fruit in the summer and make our own jam for wintertime, keep chickens and fresh eggs shall we have, and our goats, well, cheese and milk shall they provide like none you have ever tasted.

 

In great abundance did the Super Heroes live, with happy youth, and fresh local food, and when came they news that not everyone understood that times were a-changing, well, happily did they invite them… to a party to end all parties…

 

For you remember, they were well practised at this; every time a child became a Teenager was cause for great celebration across the town, and so parties they were very good at.

 

We’ll have a party, they said, and when the people do arrive, we‘ll feed them with our freshly grown, freshly prepared, freshly cooked food, the like of which they will have never tasted before, and then we‘ll host them in the fine yurts the boy in green has built, and keep them so cosy with wood burning stoves they’ll roast and be stripped down to their summer things in a trice. Then we’ll teach them our skills, for free and for fun, for each of us will be doing our favourite thing, and no one can resist a person doing what they love best. And before they know where they are they’ll be having so much fun they’ll be living the times, the Times of Transition, and they’ll have forgotten that there were any other times at all.

 

And the girl in the multi coloured skirt will sing and dance for them, till they all join in, and sing and dance too, and the girl in the blue top will write the tale of how the Super Heroes founded the town of FunTown, and people a long, long time from now will marvel at the how the people did live, before the Times of Transition, when Fun was not the most important thing to be had.

 

Many, many thanks to Sharon Pavey of Transition Honiton and her lovely children and friend for playing The Quest and creating this tale.