T.G.I.F.

T.G.I.F.  Everyone recognizes those four letters from all over the world.  Thank Goodness It’s Friday.  Those four letters brings smiles and hoorays to the humans and us anipals.  But I bet you didn’t know that they also have another meaning.  Shocking huh?

You see my mom has worked a lot of different jobs.  She once worked with our local school system for six years.  Trust me, she has told me stories of those times.  There is *never* a dull moment working with elementary children – ever!  One of the stories that she told me was about T.G.I.F.  I’ve never forgotten it and neither has she.  It was sweet and kind and so childish – it was great and still brings a smile to mom’s face and mine to this day.  I’ll tell you what happened and you be the judge here okay.

Mom was in the front office of the school and this little boy who was in the first grade came into the office.  He was crying.  So mom being the gal she is walked up to him and immediately hugged him.  She then took him to the side office and they sat on the couch together.  You see he was having a bad day and it was only 9:00AM.  His dad was overseas in the military and his mom had to work.  She couldn’t get off work to come see him in his first grade play.  He was beside himself!  And for a first grader – this was just the end of the world – you can imagine.

Mom talked to him for a few moments and tried to get him to brighten up a bit.  She volunteered to step in for his mom to come see him in his play.  His upside down face turned into the biggest smile you would ever see and his tears of grief turned into tears of joy.  He just couldn’t believe that my mom was going to do that for him.  She got the time from him that she should attend and helped him clean up his face.

That’s when she noticed that one of his shoes were untied.  She got down on the floor and tied it for him.  That’s when she saw this T.G.I.F. written on the toes of his shoes.

What in the world?!  Was this small child thankful that it was Friday?  So she looked at him bewildered and said, “Scotty, what does TGIF mean to you?”  Scotty looked at my mom, grinned and started laughing.  The he said the sweetest thing to my mom.

“Miss Smith, I have a problem putting on my shoes.  My daddy fixed me right up though.  He wrote TGIF on the toes of my shoes to remind me that Toes Go In First.”