American Chimpanzee

as featured in Desert Exposure Magazine   RaisingDad by Jim and Henry Duchene Guilty Me “adventures in chicken land”      My eight-year-old granddaughter and I were on the west side of town picking up her new glasses. We live on the far east side of town. Why we had to drive all this way, you'll have to ask my wife. She's beautiful, but she has no sense of distance.      “Are you hungry?” I asked her as we left the eyeglass store.      “A little,” she said.      “What would you like?”      “Chick-fil-A.”      Fortunately, there’s always one close by. The last time we stopped at this particular one we took our food to a hiking trail and had an adventure. That was before the Great Toilet Paper Shortage. She must have been five or so. The time before that she was four. We were sitting next to the playground, but the rule was she had to finish...

    a story by my 9-year-old granddaughter The Monster Hero By Addison Olivia Duchene    I was putting my daughter to sleep when she asked me, "Mom, can you please tell me about the monster who saved you?"      "Okay," I told her, "here it goes. When I was a little girl, maybe 9-years-old, I was picking flowers to throw in the lake to see them float. Then I saw a reflection in the  water, but I couldn't make it out. The reflection was Frankenstein's monster, but I wasn't afraid of him. He looked like he was scared or had no friends, so I asked him, 'Do you want to join me?' He nodded and I gave him some flowers. We became friends. I turned away to throw some more flowers into the water and when I turned back he was gone.      "A couple of years later, when I was about 11-years-old, I was walking outside at night and was attacked by Dracula, and when I thought I was going to die Frankenstein's monster jumped out and saved me. He dist...