Fingers Came First

Owen liked eating macaroni and cheese with his fingers. "It tastes better this way," he explained when Mom asked him for the tenth time to please use his fork. "Who invented forks anyhow?"

Mom was too busy with baby Phoebe to answer. Phoebe liked eating with her fingers, too. Now she picked up a fistful of macaroni, studied it carefully, then plopped it on top of her head. "More!" she said happily.

Owen laughed. Mom sighed. "I think lunch is over," she said.

While Mom cleaned up Phoebe, Owen took out his big picture dictionary. He turned the pages until he found the words that started with F. He kept looking until he saw a picture of a fork. "What does it say?" he asked Mom.

Mom shifted Phoebe and read, "Fork: a tool with thin, pointed parts called tines that is used to put food in your mouth."

"Well, I know that!" Owen said. "But who invented forks?"

"I have no idea," said Mom. "Should we walk to the library and ask Mr. Roberts? Librarians are good at finding out answers."

Owen liked the library. He helped Morn bundle up Phoebe and push the stroller. When they got to the library, he went right up to Mr. Roberts's big desk.

"Do you know who invented forks?" he asked. He used his quiet library voice, and Mr. Roberts smiled.

"Hello, Owen," he said. "I don't think anyone has ever asked me that question before! Let's see what we can find out."

Mr. Roberts let Owen watch while he typed some words on his computer. "I'm asking the computer to tell me where we might find books about forks and other eating utensils," he explained. "It says we have two books here; and another book in the big library downtown. Let's look at our books first."

Mr. Roberts and Owen went between two long rows of shelves. "Storybooks are in those other shelves, by the tables," Mr. Roberts said. "These shelves are for books that tell us real facts about things. Each book has its own special place, to make it easy to find when we need it. Aha-here we go!" Mr. Roberts stopped and pulled out two books. Owen liked the look of these books. They had lots of pictures.

Mr. Roberts started reading. "Hmmm. It says here that knives came first and were used to stab foods like meat, thousands of years ago. Then came spoons, for soups and stews. But forks weren't used for eating until much, much later! Look!" He showed Owen a picture of people in pioneer days eating just the way Owen liked to eat-with their fingers!

Mom came over with Phoebe and started reading, too.

"Nobody knows who invented the first fork," she said. "It was probably a pointed stick, like we use for toasting marshmallows." She started laughing. "Uh-oh, Owen! Looks like I'm in trouble! When forks were first used to eat with, people thought they were silly! Some people said that if people were meant to use forks, they wouldn't have been born with fingers!"

Owen nodded with satisfaction. "I thought so," he said. He took the books from Mr. Roberts and got out his library card. "I'd like to check these out and take them home, please." He thought happily what a smart place the library was. Then he hugged Phoebe in her stroller. "But no chewing on the corners!"

Copyright Carus Publishing Company Feb 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved