Sammy the Stop Sign stood on one corner of Spruce Street and Aspen Avenue.
Spruce Street ran north and south. Sammy faced south.
He had four stop sign friends.
There was Ed who faced east, Nan who faced north, and Wilhelmina who looked west.
They called Wilhelmina Willy because it was shorter and easier to say.
The four Stop Signs worked together to protect the four corners of the street.
Their job was to make sure all the cars stopped.
It was a busy intersection.
On three of the corners, there were a school, a park and a church.
Sammy’s corner led into a cul-de-sac.
There were a lot of houses around his cul-de-sac.
Yes, it was a very busy intersection.
Sammy loved his job!
He was proud of the fact that he and his friends stopped cars and trucks.
He was relieved that they didn’t have any accidents.
And he was especially happy that the kids in the neighborhood got safely to school.
Sam, Ed, Nan and Willy did a great job!
Sam was a little worried, though.
It was harder for people to see the four friends at night.
That made it a little more dangerous.
But all the neighbors knew that the four friends were there, and they still followed the rules in the dark.
When it was very quiet, Sam, Ed, Nan and Willy would talk.
“What would happen if we were not here,” Sam asked one night.
“Oh, don’t be silly,” Nan said. “We will always be here.”
“That’s right,” added Ed. “We have a very important job to do.”
Willy replied, “We make such a good team!”
Everything went along smoothly until one day in the middle of winter.
It started to snow. It snowed and snowed. It seemed like the snow would never stop.
Plows came along to clear the streets.
They plowed and piled the snow along the sides of the streets.
The piled snow almost covered Sammy and his friends.
Under the snow, the streets were very icy.
It made driving slippery and dangerous.
It was so dangerous that there was a big accident on the corner.
Cars crashed into each other. But they also crashed into the stop signs!
Nan’s and Ed’s poles were broken in two!
Willy’s pole was not broken, but it was tipped sideways!
Only Sammy was left standing up straight.
Sammy called out to his friends. “Are you guys OK?”
It was quiet.
Finally Willy answered. “I’m here,” she said. “I can’t see Nan and Ed, though.”
Pretty soon, it was all quiet.
Only Sammy was left to watch the four corners.
He felt so sad.
In a day or two, the weather got a better. The sun came out.
Sammy heard workmen doing something on his corners. He could not see them though.
When they were gone, he heard more noises. Funny, blinky noises.
“What’s going on?” he said to himself out loud.
“Hey, Buddy!” said someone back. “Who’s that?” asked Sammy.
“It’s me. I mean, it’s us,” came the answer. “We are the blinkers. The warning flashers. We will be here until the new sign is ready.”
That surprised Sammy. The new sign? What new sign? Why not ‘the new signs’?
The flasher, whose name was Floyd, explained it was a busy corner.
The workmen were going to put in a new traffic light.
“Won’t that be great?” Floyd said.
Sammy was now very sad.
A new light might be good to have, but Sammy was going to miss his friends.
He would probably be moved, too. That made him even sadder.
Pretty soon, the workmen came to take Sammy away.
One said, “Time to recycle this old sign.”
“Yep, just like the other ones,” said another.
Sammy did not know what to think.
Before long, the workmen pulled Sammy out of their truck.
They tossed him into a pile with other old signs and things that had been damaged in the storm.
And guess what!
Sammy landed in a pile with….
Nan, Ed and Willy!
They were all being recycled together.
The four friends were very happy.
Soon, though, they were even happier.
After washing, heating, twisting and bending,
After new holes were drilled, and wires pulled,
After a whole lot of screws and fresh paint,
And after green, yellow and red lights were plugged in,
The four friends had been turned into one, big, bright, beautiful new….
….traffic light!
The four friends were now all working together.
And soon, they were even happier yet.
Sammy the Stop Sign, now Sammy the Traffic Light, and his four friends now hung over the middle of Spruce Street and Aspen Avenue.
They had all come home to keep their corners safe!
Moral of the story: After tough times, sometimes, the change is good.