A few days before we left on our long awaited summer vacation trip, the kids and I headed to the library in town to check out some books and some Hank the Cow Dog CD's. One of the books we checked out was a cute story called Carolinda Clatter about a little girl named Carolinda who loved noise. One day she made too much noise and stirs a sleeping giant and she is sent to put him back to sleep. She soothes him by singing him lullabies...
This sleeping giant had been sleeping for hundreds of years. Grass grew all over him and his eyes became two ponds, his beard and the hair on his head became forests and all kinds of animals came to live in them. People came to live on him too and they said "This mountain looks just like a sleeping giant. We must be quiet and careful not to wake him." They were very careful to be quiet... but then Carolinda Clatter came along...
It was a fun, picture filled book to read.A few days later on our trip, IMAGINE our surprise when we were driving en-route between Helena and Great Falls and Randy says, "There's the sleeping giant!" as he pointed out the window in front of us. We all looked in total disbelief out the window and this is what we saw...
We really never imagined we would see the sleeping giant on our trip! The big scary, sad giant that Carolinda had encountered so long ago!
We certainly didn't want to wake the sleeping giant so we tried to be very quiet and careful! We saw him for a few days and we traveled through and around the area and he continued to sleep on and on, happily dreaming that he's dancing with the moon...So if you're ever heading through Montana on I-15, look up and see the Giant. Hopefully he will continue to sleep on as he has done for hundreds and hundreds of years! It is said that even Lewis and Clark looked for him as a landmark on their exploration trip across the country after hearing about him from Indian tribes further east.
If you doubt this post is true, check out this story Carolinda Clatter! by Mordicai Gerstein
and this Wikopedia information on The Sleeping Giant near Helena, Montana.
I 'nose' I've said it before but... I love it when life happens this way,
Alison
7 comments:
OH MY WORD...as a little girl I looked on in wonder for the longest time trying to see the "Sleeping Giant"...for some reason I could not make him out. Then finally when I figured it out, for the longest time our trips around town I would look at him for as long as possible. Now everytime I go back home, I point him out to my kids. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. ;-)
pretty cool that your kids were reading that book before seeing the 'real thing' !
Super-Neat life experience!
What fun! Keep the posts coming - your trip is most interesting so far!
Oh my, that is so fun!!
LOVE this story! What are the chances. Ive never even heard of the sleeping giant, this is fun to learn all this stuff about MT that I never knew. Guess it proves Im from ND eh? We should meet at story hour at the library some time.
Pretty much my favorite post yet. :) Well, maybe it is because I love books. Stay tuned for a whole epistle on my blog about books and Mexico....I sort of have a lot to say on the subject...haha! Hi to your kiddles.
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