Nicker Stories - Where Imagination Becomes Reality

This month has Father’s Day. The tradition for Danny and his family is to make shish-kebab. Although different people make this different ways, this is almost always meat and vegetables. These are put on skewers and grilled. One year, Danny and his father were cooking the shish-kebab on their barbecue when Danny spotted something just outside the yard. Something large. Something alive and walking. You probably know the story. If you don’t know the story, I’ll let you in on the secret.

That something was a sulcata (sul-caw-taw) tortoise. Because he came on Father’s Day, he was named after Danny’s father’s father – Gordie. Gordie the Social Tortie. (Well, he’s not all that social, but he likes Danny, and if Danny calls out, “Gordie, come here,” Gordie will usually come.)

Gordie has been eating, and growing, and eating, and growing. When he came, he about the size of a basketball and weighed 17 pounds. Now he won’t fit into a wheelbarrow and weighs about 150 pounds. (How much do you weigh?) Today, he is still eating, and still growing.

For this issue, we bring you something special. First is a video of Danny’s Father’s Day shish-kebab and how it’s made.

It’s Father’s Day. Danny and his father are at the barbeque. They are making something called shish-kebab. There are many ways to make it. Danny and his father make it like this.

They use chunks of sirloin and chunks of chicken and slices of onion and slices of zuchinni and pieces of bell pepper and handfuls of cherry tomatoes and lots of mushrooms.
A sauce called a marinade is made. In a bowl goes olive oil…
a dash of worchestershire…
plenty of crushed garlic…
and some salt and pepper….
put in the meat and stir it all together…
cover and put this into the refrigerator. A few hours is enough. Overnight is better.

Prepare all the vegetables. You can put these into a marinade or not.

Now put all of it onto the skewers. Onion, meat, mushroom, tomato and so on.

Light the grill. Especially if your grill uses charcoal, be sure to give it plenty of time to get hot.

Every so often, turn the skewers with tongs so they cook evenly.

When cooking has finished, remove from the grill. We use tongs to remove all the goodies from the skewers. Remember, everything is very hot so you have to be careful. The tomatoes might gush as it is taken off the skewers – but that’s okay.

It’s a complete meal, but you can add to it.

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On this Father’s Day, Danny and his father were at the grill. The sun was going down.

Suddenly, Danny pointed to the back fence and said “Daddy, what’s that?”

Something was there. Something very strange. It looked like a brown basketball – but it was flat on the bottom. And it was moving!

“Daddy, what IS that?” Danny asked.

Daddy was busy at the grill, but when you see a flat brown basketball walking along the fence, you can’t help but pay attention.

“WHAT IS that?”

Since basketballs don’t usually go for a hike … it couldn’t be a basketball.

“WHAT is THAT?” Danny wanted to know.

So, they went to go see what THAT was. It wasn’t a basketball. It was more like a big rock. But rocks go hiking even less often than do basketballs.

So, they did the sensible thing. They picked up the walking stone basketball and brought it into the yard and got back to the shish-kebab on the barbecue.

So, the sun went down, and they ate the shish-kebab from the barbecue.

So, the walking stone basketball found a spot and went to sleep until morning.

So, in the morning the shish-kebab from the barbecue was eaten, and the walking stone basketball was walking again – but not looking for shish-kebab.

So, they found out … it wasn’t a walking stone basketball. It was a walking sorta-kinda-stone sulcata tortoise. They tried to find out where it came from. Unfortunately, the tortoise didn’t seem much interested in talking. It refused to answer any questions at all.

“Where did you come from?”

The walking rock gobbled some grass.

“Where were you going?”

The walking rock gobbled more grass.

Well, Gordie ate, and he grew

And he ate, and he grew

And he ate, and he grew

They named him Gordie – after Gordie, who was named Gordie first, but wasn’t a tortoise. Gordie was a carpenter. But Gordie was a digger. Gordie once flew in the air. Gordie dug caverns in the ground.

Gordie lived in Minnesota

Gordie lived in Arizona

That was a good thing because Gordie didn’t like heat

And Gordie didn’t like cold

It was also a good thing because when Danny said, “Gordie, come here, please” it could have been confusing because both Gordies came

Things worked out, though. These days, Danny can call to Gordie … and Gordie comes.