At bedtime when my son was little, I started out by “inventing” a story out of thin air to tell him before going to sleep. Of course it was adventurous in nature – it’s the only way I know. 
More often than not the story was about “Sam the Tugboat” and his adventures in the ocean along the sandy beach coastline of a fictitious Beach Harbor. Beach Harbor could have been anywhere, but in my imagination it was probably in California, back in a more civilized time and place. But even in a civilized time and place there were problems, emergencies and troubles that had to be solved – like when a beach ball is unexpectedly blown out to sea by the wind – requiring Sam the Tugboat to save the day and rescue it and return it to the child who lost it. Such were the themes of our story time routine.
My wife often said that I should write the Sam the Tugboat stories down and publish them someday as a collection in a children’s book. The only problem was that as quickly as I imagined them and “spoke them to life” they evaporated into thin air. It seems unbecoming to tape record a children’s story as it’s being told just to be able to write it down later – the magic of the moment disappears and it becomes contrived at best, and phony at worst. So over the years literally hundreds of stories vanished like magic into the night, having served their intended purpose.
My son turns 22 tomorrow, so this was some time ago. However, in 2000 I wrote down a representative version of the Sam the Tugboat series and will include it here as a sample of what was created on those evenings long ago. Along with the imagined stories of mine, we read real stories and had our bedtime chats together and wrestled a bit – which was a lot of fun but very hard on the bed! Even before he had started school, I read to him aloud both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. After having read the entire series aloud for him twice, he then read it all over again by himself, out loud to me (with my help) when he was in grade school. This type of interaction cannot be replaced by talking toys or TV programming. Your child needs your attention and time more than anything – and will treasure it more than anything…even if they never admit it verbally to you. My wife was always a homemaker, so while I was off flying jets, she had lots of time to devote to my son during the day, which is why our bedtime story routine became so special.
When it was time to say good night, I had a goofy phrase to tuck him in with that I used everynight as my signoff. It went like this: “Gute Nacht, Auf Wiedersehen, Arrivederci, See you later alligator after a while crocodile, Tschüss, Adios, Ciao.” It’s moments like these you remember for the rest of your life. Such were the moments that created the atmosphere for Sam the Tugboat to always save the day. Although Sam was a hero, it was always accomplished with both a sense of urgency, because someone really was counting on him, and with a strong sense of humility. Sam never wanted to be the center of attention – that always belonged to someone else.
In many ways I suppose Sam was the perfect alter ego for me to create – spontaneous, adventurous, heroic and humble. Whatever the underlying motives, the bottom line was that Sam always saved the day, my son really enjoyed the stories – and often asked for more, more, more – and our story time together was always special. So I’ll post the only written account of Sam the Tugboat here for all children and those who remain children at heart to enjoy. Who knows, perhaps I’ll recall the magic of those moments and write down a few more Sam the Tugboat adventures…you really never know! After all, there may be a child out there somewhere in the evening’s dim light that is also asking for more, more, more…and Sam always does have to save the day – Sam wouldn’t have it any other way - enjoy!
