shoe cans

This is a story about a young boy named Billy. He is about 9 years old and in the fourth grade.  Right now he is on summer vacation and he is getting tired of not knowing what to do with his time.  His family’s house is outside of the town and the few families that are close by do not have kids his age.  None of his friends from school live that close to him, so he is alone most the time.  He does have a dog, Sparky, that he takes for walks.  One day, as Billy and Sparky were heading out for a walk, he noticed a pop can near the recycling bin his dad had put out that morning for pickup.  The wind must have blown the can out of the bin onto the driveway.  He picked it up to throw it back into the recycling bin, but before he did, he squeezed the can with his hand.  He liked the crumpling noise that the can made and wondered if he could get it to crumple more if he stepped on it, so he dropped it back on the driveway, stepped on it and guess what - it stuck to his shoe.  He tried and tried to get the can off of his shoe but nothing helped.  He looked at Sparky and said, “I guess we will just have to go home with the can on my shoe,” and they started back down the driveway towards home.

He walked to the back of the house and sat on the steps.  He tried again to pull the can off his shoe, but it wouldn’t budget.  Finally, he called his mom. She came to the screendoor and asked him what he wanted.  He told her he had a problem, but she would have to come out and see what was wrong.  Billy’s mother came down the steps and stood in front of Billy.  She looked at him and said, “I can’t see anything wrong with you.”  Billy told her the whole story about not being able to get the can off his shoe.  His mother told him to take the shoe off and she would see if she could get the can off, but she also couldn’t get it off the shoe.  That can was really stuck to his shoe.  She said, “I have an idea,” as she headed back into the kitchen and just as quickly came back out with a screwdriver. She had to work on getting the can off, even with using the screwdriver, but it finally did come loose and she pulled it off.  She gave Billy his shoe back and said, “Keep away from cans,” and went back into the house. 

Billy sat there with one shoe off, looking at the can and thinking how much fun that was to walk around on the can, even if he had to have his mom help him get it off his shoe. After a little while, Billy’s mother called him to come in and wash up for dinner, so Billy got up and went into the house with Sparky trailing behind him.  He washed his hands and when he sat down, his father was already at the table.  His dad asked how his day went and when Billy told him about what happened with the can and shoe.  His dad laughed and said, “That’s a great idea!  That might save us a lot of money because if you wear cans on your shoes, they won’t wear out as fast!”

After dinner Billy helped his mom clean up, then went up to his bedroom and sat on his bed thinking about what else he could do with that can to make it more fun.  Then he figured it out - he could put another can on the other shoe.  “Tomorrow I will find another can and see if I can walk with two of them, one on each shoe.”  Billy put the smashed can on his desk and said out loud, “Allright can. We will find you a buddy in the morning.”  He climbed under the covers and fell asleep, dreaming of walking on cans.

The sun came shining through Billy’s bedroom window and woke him up. This was one morning that Billy wanted to get out of bed early because he wanted to start work on his walking shoe can invention.  He got dressed real quick, then went downstairs to the kitchen.  His mother was already making breakfast for his dad before he had to go to work.  They were surprised to see him up so early because he had been sleeping in all summer.  Billy told them of his plans to make a pair of shoe cans and they just looked at one another, smiled and wished him good luck.  Billy said, “If this works, I’m going to make a pair for George and Frank too!”  Billy’s dad looked at Billy and said, “You better make sure that the cans don’t damage any shoes before you make any more for your friends.”  “I will,” said Billy, and then his dad left for work. 

Billy helped his mother clean the breakfast dishes and then headed outside to work on his project, but first he called Sparky, who came running when he heard Billy call him.  The two of them headed out the door to look for cans.  Billy lucked out because the recycling bin had not been picked up yet and there were six more pop cans in it, just the number he needed.  He had planned on making his two friends from school each a pair of shoe cans too.  He brought the cans back to the house and ran them under the water hose to clean them off.  He then put them in the sun to dry and headed to the garage to find paint.  He figured they would look so much better if they were painted.  He was in luck because he found a can of nice yellow paint that was left over when his dad painted the bathroom.  He also found some paint brushes, so it looked like everything was going his way.

He brought the paint and brushes outside and set them down in front of the garage.  He checked the pop cans and they were already dried from being washed.  He then took some newspapers, spread them out on the driveway, lined the cans up in a straight row and started to paint.  After he painted each can, he set it straight up on the newspaper to dry and because the sun was shining so bright and warm, he hoped the paint on the can wouldn’t take too long to dry.  The cans looked really good painted yellow.  He was really happy with how they were looking. 

He was so excited about sharing the shoe cans with his friends, George and Frank, that he called them up and asked if they would be able to come over because he had something they just have to see.  George asked his older brother, Joe, if he would be able to drive him and Frank over to Billy’s and he said he would be able to later that afternoon.  Billy could hardly wait, but it was probably better they waited till afternoon to make sure the paint was dry on the cans. He took Sparky for a walk to try to pass the time until his friends showed up.

A few hours later, Billy saw George’s brother’s car pull into the driveway.  When George and Frank got out of the car George said, “We don’t have much time because Joe said he would be back in a couple of hours, so where’s this thing we just have to see? You were so worked up about it.  It better be good.”  “Oh, it’s good.  Follow me,” Billy said.  The three of them walked over to the garage and there were the bright yellow cans still sitting on the newspaper.  “Wait a minute,” said Frank.  “This is what you wanted us to see?  Painted pop cans?”  “Yeah, but watch this,” Billy said as he took one of the cans, laid it on the driveway, then quickly stomped on it so hard that it crumpled and folded up around his shoe.  He then put a second can down and stomped on that one too.  Now he had a yellow can on each shoe, and as George and Frank watched him, Billy ran around the driveway making the loudest clunking noise.  George and Frank looked at each other and said at the same time, “Cool!  Can we try?”  Billy said, “Yeah, I made enough for all of us.”

Billy told them to take a pop can, lay it on the ground, then carefully slam your foot in the middle of the pop can so the can bends up and around the sides of their shoes and sticks.  When they did what Billy said to do, it worked!  The yellow pop can squeeze up around the sides of their shoes.  Then the three of them ran around on the driveway, laughing and having a great time making clunking sounds as the cans hit the cement of the driveway.  George looked at Billy and said, “This is great!”  Frank added, “Yeah, this is awesome and so noisey!” 

They were still laughing and having fun with the shoe cans when George's big brother, Joe, pulled up in his car to pick up George and Frank. Joe said, “You have to come home now.”  The three of them didn’t want to stop because they were having so much fun, but George finally said, “Okay. Hope we can come back and do this again, Billy.”  “Of course you can!” said Billy.  George sat down on the driveway and tried to remove the cans from his shoes but they wouldn’t come off.  Frank had the same problem - his cans wouldn’t come off either.  Joe told George and Frank, “Looks like you guys are going to have to wear those pop cans home because we need to get going.”  George and Paul said that they would give the pop cans back to Billy next time they saw him, but Billy said, “That’s okay, I meant for you to keep them.”  After Billy’s friends left, he thought to himself, “Boy, I’m going to be in big trouble when my dad gets home because he said to check for problems before letting any friends try the shoe cans on and now they can’t get them off.”

He was still in the driveway when his dad’s car pulled in.  His dad blew his horn, stuck his head out of the window and yelled, “Billy, what are you doing?  I have to get my car in the garage.  You are going to have to move all that stuff you have laying out on the driveway.”  Billy said, “I’m sorry Dad.  I will have it all cleaned up in no time.”  Billy hurried up and in just a few minutes he had everything cleaned up so his dad could drive his car into the garage.  When Billy’s dad came out of the garage, he asked Billy what he was doing with all that stuff that was in the driveway.  Billy told his dad how George and Frank came by and they all had a good time walking around on shoe cans.  His dad said he was glad that his idea worked out, then the two of them, and Sparky too, headed into the house for dinner.

Just when they were finishing up with dinner, the doorbell rang and Billy’s father went to answer it.  Standing there were George and Frank, and their fathers too.  George’s dad spoke first and said, “I’m George's father, Tim and this is Frank's father, Mike.  Our boys and your boy are friends.  We hate to bother you, but we were wondering if Billy knew how to get these shoe cans off.”  Billy’s father looked down at the cans on both of the boys shoes, then looked at Billy.  “I thought I said not to share your shoe can idea with your friends until you knew for sure that it would work.”  Tim told Billy's father, “It’s not that big of a deal.  We were just afraid that if we just pulled the cans off, they will tear the shoes.  So we were hoping that you knew how to get these off without messing up the shoe.”  Billy’s father looked at Billy, then the can shoes, then at the other fathers and said, “I am sorry, I have no idea how to get these pop cans off their shoes.”

Billy’s mother was listening and she said, “I think I can help.”  She brought out the screwdriver she had used to help Billy get the cans off his shoes the first time, then went over to the first boy and worked the screwdriver back and forth on the bottom of the can and sure enough, the can popped right off.  Then she went over to the next boy and popped the cans off of his shoes too.  Billy’s father told the boys’ fathers he was very sorry this happened, but they replied, “No, don’t be sorry!  We would actually like to talk to Billy about his new invention.”  Tim looked at Billy and said, “Son, you are a genius!  We need to talk about selling these!”  Billy’s father couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Tim continued, “I am manager of the department store in town, and I think these could  go over really big with kids.  We just need to do a little more testing to figure out how to make them easier to take off.”  He told Billy’s Father he would call next week and set up an appointment to talk things over. Billy’s father thanked both men and said good night.

Billy’s dad walked over to the chair where Billy was sitting, sat on the arm of the chair and said, “Billy, I am sorry that I got mad before.  Seems your pop cans for shoes invention is great!  Please forgive me and just promise me that next time you get an idea for an invention, you let me check it out first before you try it out on your friends.”  Billy held his dad’s hand and said, “I promise Dad.  You will be the first to test any of my new inventions.”  His dad smiled and said, “Great!  Now let’s go have a hot chocolate to celebrate.”

George’s father, Tim, did bring the shoe cans to work with him and one of the building maintenance person that worked there came up with the idea to add a small pull strap to the cans to help them pop off easier.  They asked Billy to make as many of these shoe cans as he could, and make sure to glue a pull strap to each one. Billy worked very hard making several pairs brought them to the store. George’s father already had a stand set up at the front of the store with a big sign that said “Amaze your friends and family! Shoe cans! One size fits all!” Even though the store ended up not selling a whole lot of them, they did sell enough shoe cans that Billy ended up with more than enough money to take his family on a very nice vacation!

So if you ever have an invention, don’t ever think that it’s not a good one because you just never know and you might be able to make at least a little bit of money so you and your family can take a vacation too! :)