Another part of my send-off during coffee hour included the reading of my very own gnome story. One should know that the gnomes in Gnome Park in Dawson each have their own story, their own tale about the type of gnome they are and the kind of activities they engage in as gnome people. In my honor, Kendall wrote a gnome story for me. I have my own gnome story! My life is now complete. As the story was shared, I was dressed with a gnome shirt, a gnome cap and a heart on my sleeve. The story is quite extensive but I will give you the highlights – the ways in which Kendall slyly and lovingly made kind fun of me, my dressing patterns, and creative outlets.
(a half-page worth of super descriptive characteristics of Dawson and then – ) This is a story of a gnome that lived in this village for only a very short time. It was the wind from the east that brought this new gnome to live in the village. But this gnome came to this village on the long road that runs East and West with a very strange wheelbarrow that was loaded high with lots of boxes and books and baking things. This wheelbarrow had a tag on its front and rear with the name of a place we barely mention in this village – Wisconsin. The little gnome traveler was tired and weary after having many other adventures and she looked around this village; she stretched and yawned and stretched again and rubbed her eyes. And she thought and she thought and she thought. Then she stretched and yawned. And yawned and stretched. As she was thinking, she looked around this village and she saw many little people. They were mingling in the grass near the swimming pool. They stood so still and so quiet. This weary and tired little gnome from all her adventures watched these little people and she thought, ‘This village will be just the place for me to stay for a while. It will be still and it will be quiet.’ And so began the adventures of a new gnome who pushed her strange wheelbarrow piled high mostly with books, and boxes, and baking things with tags on the front and rear from a place that was barely mentioned in the little village. Now, there are a few things you should know about this new gnome. She was a very, very curious gnome. She was not like any of the other gnomes you may have heard about. First of all, she is young for a gnome – in people years, that is. This gnome likes to travel about and have adventures because she is still learning about the world and she still has many things to see and things to discover. Now it is also important to know that gnomes don’t own many things. They usually give away whatever they have, and they either make or find whatever they have to give. But this gnome needed a place to store the things that had been piled high – mostly books and boxes and baking things in her wheelbarrow with tags on the front and the rear with a place that was barely mentioned in this village. So she found her very best gnome cap and set it straight on her head. She found her nicest cardigan sweater and she set off walking to find a still and quiet place to be.
(the adventure continues with this gnome discovering a church where she plans a party and then prepares to leave after her short stay)
Now as all the villagers stood by the side of the long road that runs east and west from their village they waved goodbye to their new gnome friend. All will be well in this village because as the villagers raised their arms to offer their special gnome farewell, they all noticed that yes, the hearts on their own sleeves had gotten heavier. But not only heavier, they noticed that the hearts that they wore on their sleeves were much, much, much larger than before this new gnome came into their village with her wheelbarrow with tags on the front and rear of a place that was rarely mentioned, piled high with mainly books, boxes, and baking things. So they were thankful. And all will be well, too, in the new adventures of this gnome who likes to travel about because she is still learning about the world and she still has things to see and things to discover. Yes, all will be well.
And as the gnome preacher left them on that long road that runs east and west through their little village with her wheelbarrow with tags on the front and rear with the name of the place that is rarely mentioned, piled high with mostly books, and boxes, and baking things, all the villagers hoped that the heart the gnome preacher carried on her sleeve had grown larger as well because of their time together.
The end.
there's no place like gnome. 
