A few years ago, I went to school with a guy named Jeff Baker. He told me lots of stories. One of these stories was about Jeff’s great grandfather, Bill Baker. That is the story I will tell you in today’s Tuesdays with Flannel.

Bill Baker worked as a Delivery guy, and he was a bit of an animal lover. He especially loved exotic animals. He had two parrots, an echidna, and a lemur named George. One of the parrots, Keet, followed Bill around everywhere. Keet was fairly well behaved, so shops and businesses (that usually didn’t allow pets) let Keet come in and say ‘hello’ to everybody. Some people liked Keet so much that they would keep parrot treats and fruit around for him to munch on while Bill mingled.

One day, Keet and Bill were making a delivery to a painter who was deaf in one ear. Keet flew over, landed on the guy’s shoulder, and greeted him with a friendly ‘hello’. This painter misheard Keet’s greeting, and started painting with the yellow paint. The painter complimented Keet on his choice of colors, and fed him a bit of orange (the fruit, not the paint). Bill and Keet went to make their next delivery, and the painter continued to paint.

That painting would eventually go on to be purchased by Mrs. Maud Baum, wife of Lyman Frank Baum. The yellow bricks in the painting inspired him to write The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and other books in the series (continued after Baum’s death by Ruth Plumly Thompson), which in turn inspired Elton John to write the song Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

That’s all for this week. Come back next week for another fantastic story.