Trace and the Green Beans

Here is a story as told by Papa Hollis. It's quite long, but very funny!

We’ve all heard the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk, but most of you have not heard of the story I’m about to tell. This story is about a young lad nearly 5 years of age. His name is Trace BB. Now as most young boys are, vegetables are one of their least favorite foods. They typically eat French fries, grapes and hot dogs are the favorites to them.
As this story goes, last evening as the weekly family Sunday dinner was taking place; Mimi had made some delicious green beans. Now Mimi’s food is ranked as some of the best and if you don’t believe me ask Trace’s dad, Travis. “It’s the best I’ve ever had”, typically is what Travis would say.
I asked Trace if he wanted to eat one green bean. “Oh those will make me sick” or something to that effect was his comment. I told him I’d give him a new gold dollar coin if he could. Well, he tried, choked and spit it out. His facial expressions are enough to make an ol’e man like me cry. I felt sorry for him, but he is such a good actor! He is great with his expressions and dramatizes quite well. After that performance I told him I’d give 10 gold dollar coins if he could eat 10 green beans! Travis noted he’d match Papa’s $10 with 10 more.
You could see his gear turning in his head. What Super Hero’s can I get for $20 he asked his Dad? KT, Mimi, Lil’Bella and I sat there dumbfounded as the two of them talked in a different dialect about what the $20 could purchase. It went from a Super-Hero 3-Pack to 6-pack before you knew it. Travis told him they’d go to the Comic store, Toy’s-R-Us or to the Mall, enabling Trace to find “whatever” it was that they agreed he’d buy. He lite up and smiled from ear to ear with the thought of getting new S/H’s. Never had I seen such joy on his face. Then he began eating the first green bean. Let’s establish a time frame here. I’d say it’s about 5:45pm. He starts eating #1 G/B. At one point during that period, I offered him my napkin to spit it out on and asked him if he wanted to GIVE UP? He grinned mischievously at me, shook his head and swallowed #1 down the hatch. I’d guess it took about 5 minutes for it to finally be gone. Number 2 through 6 went down fairly quickly and without too much to do about it. Of course his mother was screaming (as she does) “GO TRACE, GO TRACE, GO TRACE GO!!!!!!! GO TRACE, GO TRACE, GO TRACE GO!!!!!!! Trace got permission to drink some of the wonderful juice Mimi had purchased for him. He began washing the yucky green substance down. Trav having his $10 on the line too told him that washing the G/B’s down wasn’t legal and would have to stop. Remember now, we are dealing with 2 grown men’s $20 and a “nearly” five year old doing his best to take it away from them. Neither was budging with their intent to win. Trace started to fade and even did his version of “I’ll cry and get out of it” routine. At this point the green beans had become COLD. Mimi got up and put them in the micro wave for a few seconds to warm them up. She cut off the ends as the contestant said “they were too stringy”! He needed prompting again as the crowd all begins hollering “GO TRACE, GO TRACE, GO TRACE!!!!!!! You can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO TRACE GO!!!!!!!
At one point, I think it was after #7 disappeared into his tiny tummy; I got up and retrieved 10 brand new Andrew Jackson gold dollar coins. I laid them out for Trace to see, resulting in BIG EYES GLOWING and a NEVER ENDING SMILE appearing on his face. I could see my $10 was going to be history for me soon. As #9 laid there on his plate, TBB was beaten! I wasn’t going to lose my $10 to the BOY after all! Dad took over coaching him how to do it. “Take smaller bites” he told him. “Nibble off a small bite each time”, Travis told the small warrior. Warrior he is, the BOY started eating them like a rabbit eats a leaf, one bite at a time. Holy Cow Batman, he is going to do it! The crowd went wild as #9 disappeared and #10 was in his hand. He took his time, which was approaching 6:30pm by now, and began eating on the last one. Cameras were flashing, people were clapping, Trace was choking, but the Green Bean’s eating marathon was nearing an end. He put it in his mouth, chewed it up and it was GONE!
March 17th, 2008 will go down in history as the day TBB ate 10 green beans! He won the grand prize of $10 from Papa Hollis and $10 from his father, Travis. Both were too proud to complain about the money, for Trace did it all by himself! We are so proud of this boy!
Did I ever say he hates GREEN BEANS??????
Way to go Trace!!!! GREAT JOB!!!