Fairy Tale Trail

[W]hen the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl.

~James Matthew Barrie, Peter Pan 

Yes, James Barrie, there ought to be a fairy for our curious grandchild, Ruth Ann, but we could not find that fairy on our walk through Fairy Land at Will Rogers Park in OKC.

So where do these fairies go when the sun is blazing hot, and why don't they answer their doors when we knock?

We knocked on every door we found and NO Fairy ever answered. "That's just rude!" exclaimed five year old Ruth Ann. "Don't they know they are supposed to answer the door?"

We walked from the north side of the park to the far southwest corner, knocking on every door, exploring every hidden fairy house. Looking at a collection of houses Ruth Ann commented, "I can tell that gnomes live here because there is a statue, so why don't they come out and play with me?"  Without a clue I thought, "Do you suppose they might be afraid of being stepped on?"

"Look Gamma Letty, a house with jewels. I wonder if the fairy wears her mama's bracelets like I do." Ruth Ann twisted her wrists back and forth like she does when she wears blingy bracelets."I sure would like to see that fairy. I bet she has a bead on her forehead."

We waited in the heat, dripping in sweat. My heart was beginning to ache with Ruth Ann's apparent disappointment. "Maybe," I tried to explain, "this fairy is a gypsy and she moves around place to place helping people."  I don't think my logic helped solve the issue of the fairies who would not answer the door.

By this time, we were too hot to think or even much care. So dragging ourselves back to the entry of the park, we found the park office with bathrooms to be open and air conditioned. What a relief. Inside was even as exciting as outside, because someone created a 3D fairyland display on the wall. "Look Gamma Letty. This might be where the fairies go when it is really hot." Thank heavens, I thought. Just then a man sitting on the couch replied, "Yes, you can find those fairies in their homes when it is not so hot."

Ruth Ann immediately asked, "Have you seen any fairies here?"  That caught him off guard. "I have only seen the fairies inside here, but I know that other children tell me there are fairies out there."  "Fairies are quite smart," Ruth Ann told the man.

We still had more to see, but we first we needed a Braums ice cream cone, who doesn't on a hot blustery day. After a round trip to Braums, where we sat inside licking our ice cream cones and pondering the lost fairies, we decided to go back and visit the houses we hadn't seen.

This time parking on the south side, using the Tennis entry off Portland, we walked along the creek bank, in and out of the shade trees. Suddenly, she took off like a fairy in flight! "Look. Look." Yelling and pointing we came to the Fairy Land hotel. Amazing!

Upon closer inspection we discovered that each hotel was built for a different story character. So all along we could have been looking not only for fairies, but also, gnomes and elves. She looked at the windows, "I guess they are sleeping because the lights are turned off." 

"Maybe," she pondered. Our eyes kept searching and right in front of us stood an elevator, and then we even discovered a storm shelter. "Look, the fairies can stay safe." What a relief to know that fairies can be safe in Oklahoma storms. 

We found no answers that day, but at last decided that the fairies were really there, but afraid to come out.

Too tired to carry on we drove home that day. Ruth Ann stared

out the window and was quiet for a long time. At last she said, "Gamma Letty, can go back again and look at the fairy houses? That was fun, and the giants were real."

Yes, they even had giants. 

PS. Ruth Ann and her brother AJ do have real Grandparents who live in Kansas. We are merely nearby friends of the family who have shared time with two adorable children, and so we receive the nickname 'local' grandparents.  

***********************************************************************Thank you Bob Trobaugh, the creative mind behind the lovely colorful and creative fairy, gnome, and elf homes. In April he

told my daughter and me that up to that point he had built 75 doors and 34 houses.  Going back in June with Ruth Ann, I discovered that he had built new ones since April. We invite you all to see these imaginative homes, especially the one for the unicorn or the one for the bluebirds. 

Previous post about fairies: 

https://literallyletty.blogspot.com/2020/05/fairy-land-trails-and-tales.html