Holmes to the Rescue
by Don Hobbs

My granddaughter, Madison Claire, spent the night with me last night. It was an interesting evening, especially with my wife, Joyce, out of town. Madison calls me Holmes, as in Sherlock Holmes not the Gangsta type of greeting. One of her favorite things to do upon arrival is to climb upstairs to my library where she grabs a small toy Scooby Doo that is dressed in a deerstalker and Inverness cape. Every time she leaves, I find Scooby in a different place in the house.

Madison will be four in December and is not unfamiliar with the Sherlockian world. She was actually featured on the very first United States Sherlockian postage stamp. My daughter took a photograph of  Madison and me in my library and sent it in to Stamps.com. It was accepted and the rest is history. Her mother is a school teacher and Madison has been around books all of her life. The last time she was over, she told us her favorite place to shop was Half Price Books.

For a three and a half year old, Madison has a good vocabulary. She uses words far beyond what I would think someone her age normally uses. When her mother's car was making an odd noise  Madison told her, "Don't worry, mom, if the car breaks we can take it to the repair shop and they will fix it - just like magic."  She often tell me I am annoying her but she loves to crawl up into my lap and have me read to her. She knows of the Roylott's and Professor Presbury and Holmes and Watson. The seeds of the next Sherlockian generation have been planted.

The peace and quiet was broken last night by Madison's yelling, "Help, Holmes, help me", except 'help' was drawn out to a multi-syllable word. More like 'Hey-yellllllpppp, Holmes, hey-yellllllpppp'.  Not knowing what the situation was, I leapt up the stairs, two at a time, my heart racing ninety miles an hour. The first thing I saw was Madison lying flat on the floor. As it turned out, she had dropped Scooby Doo behind my desk and she could not reach it, thus her desperate cries for hey-yellllllpppp. Once I had retrieved Scooby Doo she gave us both a loving hug. "Thank you for rescuing Scooby Doo, Holmes", she told me, " I'm so glad he wasn't trapped there forever".

Sometimes, it is life's simple things that bring us the most pleasure.

Happy Collecting!!