The Adventures of Timmy and Rusty: Timmy and Rusty Books, #1

By James A. Tavegia

This is a short book directed at higher elementary school readers to try and get them interested in reading.  Too many children are not readers today and so it is my hope to have created an interesting story about 2-10 year old boys and their adventures. I hope to make this a short series of books that children can follow like an old time serial. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: James A. Tavegia
• Release date: Feb 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215750506

James A. Tavegia

As a former math teacher in High School, Middle School, and then elementary school, I tried to make Math as much fun as I could, as it is as much a core subject as reading and writing properly. When high school students can't make change from a $5 bill for a $4.72 purchase; or read on grade level; or even write complete sentences, we must discuss what can be changed. Why can students talk for hours on end, but asking them to write 2 pages something to be dismissed as asking too much.  If better behavior and a lack of seriousness cannot be brought back  into the classroom, then I fear our children will not be prepared to enter the work force and secure the job they THINK  they deserve. 

Book preview

This is a work of fiction

and any likeness to any persons

living or deceased,

or locations

is purely coincidental.

Timmy

And

Rusty

A New Beginning

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The adventures of two, ten-year-old boys, Timmy’s dog, Rusty; and their Crime-Stopping adventures. Suitable for upper Elementary School readers who want to start enjoying reading.

Timmy was not unlike so many 10-year-old boys in his neighborhood of Hastings Mills.  He loved riding his bike all around town.  He loved his dog, a beautiful Golden Retriever, who went everywhere with Timmy, and his best friend from across the street, Ben Morgan, who had known each other since before they started kindergarten together at Bardwell Elementary School. Those three Amigos seem inseparable and it was rare they all were not seen together. 

Timmy’s house was a white, 2-story cape, with a 4-foot tall white, picket fence all around the front of the house with a gate in the center front that opened to a cement sidewalk that had 3 steps up to the 5-foot square landing before the round-topped front door. The door was solid mahogany and very beautiful.  There was also a side gate to the right where a wide driveway went back on the side of the house to a two-car garage in the back. The house and garage sat on nearly a 1-acre lot and had beautiful green grass and stunning flower beds all around the house.

Timmy had plenty to do just to keep the grass cut like his father and mother liked it, but he was good at it and he loved how the yard looked when he was finished with his weekly grass cutting chore. His father kept their Snapper Pack-In-Sack self-propelled push mower in great condition and it vacuumed up all the grass cutting into a bin held in place between the mower handles and into a 30-gallon garbage bag. The yard was impeccable when Timmy was done. Usually, Rusty would sit on the front or back stoop while Timmy was working.  Timmy said to whoever came by that Rusty was the supervisor and deserved a big Milk-Bone dog biscuit when he was finished.

Ben had similar chores at his house, a 2-story salt box style that was also beautiful with a light gray paint and navy-blue shutters. Their drive-way was on the left, but had no fence in the front, but did have a black chain-link fence that fully enclosed their back yard. They also had a two-car garage, but it was 2-cars deep and not side by side. Ben did have a large silver maple tree in his backyard that had 2 swings attached to a large branch.  Ben and Timmy often would be swinging together as they planned their next adventure.

To keep in touch when they were not together, they had a pair of low power, short distance walkie-talkies they could use to talk to each other long into the night if they wished. They had rechargeable batteries which was a big help in not wasting their allowance money they both earned from their grass-cutting work. They generally tried to cut their respective yards on the same day to not intrude on their fun time together. They also each had grass cutting jobs for the houses to the left and right of their own homes. That was convenient and kept them in snack money when they were out riding their bikes on their adventures.

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The boys would also go down to their local 1st Baptist Church and help straighten up the Bibles and Hymnals every Monday after the Sunday service and on Wednesday night after that service to help out the church secretary, Mrs. Miller. She had been at that church for over 40 years as we turning 70 on the next Saturday. Timmy and Ben were putting together some of their money to get her a nice bouquet of flowers for the reception on next Sunday for her at the church. Sometimes the boys would stop by on Friday AM and help here prepare the Sunday Bulletins.

Mostly, the boys just like to ride their bikes all over town and it was so safe that their parents had no concerns about them being on their own most of the time.  They knew to keep their moms posted about where they were going and when to expect them back home. They knew it was good not to have them worry about them.

Grass cutting was yesterday so they decided to ride out to Philips Park and just ride along the circular sidewalk-running trail they when all around the 40-acre park.  It had beautiful gardens, many water features, a sprinkler system on cement that kids to run through in the summer go cool off, and it also had a 20-foot waterfall at the entrance that had beautiful flowers on each side. At the top were two World War II cannons that the boys loved to climb on and would slide out onto the barrels, but be careful not to fall off what was a 5-foot drop to the ground. They were not the first and would not be the last to do that. On the weekends there was a family that brought out their 6 ponies and would charge only a dollar for a pony ride in the wood fenced, circle that the city had made for that. That was a big hit on the weekends for sure.

Today the boys found a ¾ inch, 4 x8 foot piece of plywood sitting off to the side and decided to make a jumping ramp for their bikes.  They found and old, 6 foot-long log, about a foot in diameter, and pulled it out and set one end on the ground with the plywood on top. It was very heavy, but they managed.  They could then get back about 30 feet and get a running start on their bikes, ride up the plywood and pull their handlebars up and jump up in the air about 2-3 feet and have the best time. Two other boys they did not know asked if they could try. All four boys had the best time for about an hour taking turns and see who could stay air-borne the longest. It was quite a contest.

Timmy and Ben said bye to the other boys who kept riding, but they were getting hungry and decided to head home for some lunch, which was always peanut butter and jelly. Timmy liked strawberry jam and Ben like grape, every day. Potato chips and milk were always on the menu.

After lunch the boys would go sit in Timmy’s living room and would take a comic book out of Timmy’s stash and would read for about 30 minutes. There was always the normal assortment of action heroes from Superman to the Green Hornet and Batman. It did not matter if they had read it 100 times before. Timmy’s Mom had also bought some coloring books of the same characters that the boys could color  once they got tired of reading. They never lacked for something to do together.

Ben had an Erector Set at his house and the boys loved building things. His set also had the motor and the biggest thing they ever built was a 36 inches tall Ferris wheel that really worked. Then they would take that apart and build some crazy