Man 2: That’s nothin’. In the winter of ’39, my Pa had me go and check on the chickens. It was so cold that the hens’ feet had froze to their roost. After we got them thawed, Ma had to knit wool socks for the lot of them.

Man 1: Man 1: Yeah, now I know you are trying to pull a fast one on me.

Man 3: How do you figure that?

Man 1: Well, if that happened in 1939 and he is 56 years old, then he must have been the smartest and most helpful child in this country.

Man 2: What do you mean? I was very smart for my age.

Man 1: Well, in the winter of 1939, you could have only been 1 month old.

Narrator: So the next time you are sitting around enjoying a good cup of coffee at the local café, take our warning – talk about your family, your job, your car, but if you know what’s good for you, DON’T TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER.

Cindy Crichton wrote the following script for Reader’s Theatre for the Mentally Challenged, a publication resulting from a project funded by the National Literacy Secretariat (NLS). Cindy Crichton runs C.C. Consulting in Olds, AB, and is also a Student Involvement Facilitator for the Alberta Association of Adult Literacy (AAAL). She was a recent recipient of an Alberta Literacy Award of Merit. Cindy Crichton also gave a talk at the SARC 2000 Annual General Meeting and Conference, speaking about her experiences delivering literacy services to people with developmental disabilities.