The Rue Whistle Story

Once upon a time, there was a very old woman who lived in a mossy stone house. This woman who was known by most as “Grandma” lived in a lush green meadow of clover at the base of a majestic mountain. Grandma was not just a grandma, she had an uncounted number of grandchildren, great grandchildren and even great-great grandchildren.

Her grandchildren would come to visit and play in the soft green grass and in the fresh blue water that came down from the mountaintop. Grandma loved her grandchildren, each and every one of them. What made Grandma special is she knew each child and how wonderful and different they were and because of that, they loved her very much.

One warm and sunny day, the screen door to Grandma’s house slammed open and closed again. One of Grandma’s youngest grandkids came racing through the house, yelling very loud, “Gramma, where are you Gramma?” Grandma got worried because she noticed right away that the small child was crying. Grandma asked what was wrong because she knew that she would need to fix whatever was bothering the child.

Grandma lifted the small child up to the wooden table, she sat down and the little one asked with great concern, why the other kids’ tiny toes had names. The child held up a foot and sobbed to Grandma “these toes don’t have names”.

Grandma knew how easy this was going to be because for countless generations, in her family, the toes of small children always had names. Grandma sat with the sorrowful child, and beginning with the smallest toe, she began to teach the child the toe names. She softly held the smallest toe and started with Icky Pea, then Penny Roo and then Grandma’s favorite toe, the middle toe is, of course, Rue Whistle then onto Mary Ossle and last, with a big squeeze to the big toe, is Big Tum Bumble.

The child grinned and kissed Grandma on the cheek. The screen door slammed and Grandma could hear her great grandchild yelling to the other grandchildren, “here comes Rue Whistle!” All was well once again.

We dedicate our business to that wonderful woman who has continued her family’s century-long heritage of toes with names and to that youngster who apparently, on that bright sunny day, changed their name to Rue Whistle.