I wish I had the imagination that my niece and nephew have.

That would probably make me a lot better at this job.

Both of them have come up with some of the strangest ideas and creations.

But somehow in their young minds they all seem perfectly normal.

My niece came up with one of the greatest of all time last weekend.

I was asleep in my old room in my parent's house when she came bouncing on my belly.

She kept yelling, "wake up Rick!" over and over.

I finally woke up and asked her what was the matter.

Her reply was "There's a monkey dragon in your closet!"

I don't know about you, but I've never seen a regular dragon much less a monkey dragon.

I had to give that one a lot of thought and I still couldn't draw a mental picture of a monkey dragon.

I finally had to ask her what a monkey dragon would look like.

She thought for a second and said "scary."

She then started to go into detail about what I should bring to her birthday party.

I am still in the dark on what a monkey dragon should look like.

My nephew had a similar monster when he was younger.

He saw monster frogs everywhere.

Every time we got ready to put him to bed he would start to see the monster frogs.

It was always a good way for him to avoid bedtime for a little longer.

Again, I never got an accurate description of what a monster frog should look like.

Hopefully, I'll go the rest of my life without seeing one.

They both have much stronger imaginations than I ever did.

I can't ever remember any crazy fictional monsters from my childhood.

I'm sure they were there, but I can't remember.

My sister did have an encounter with a fictional monster that was a little too real.

She was walking through the yard once and saw an armadillo coming out of a hole.

Apparently, she had never seen one before because she ran home screaming.

When my mother asked what was the matter she said, "I just saw the devil coming out of the ground!"

It never ceases to amaze me what the young mind can come up with.

I guess as we get older and have to take life seriously we lose that fun, creative trait we all have when we are younger.

I would like to run around yelling about monkey dragons and monster frogs too.

As a matter of fact, I may do just that.

So if you see me on the streets running around like a lunatic don't have me locked up.

I'm just trying to relive my youth.

Rick Couch may be reached at

383-9302, ext. 132 or

via email at rick. couch@greenvilleadvocate.com.