Oliver, The Grumps 9-10 Autumn Writing Competition Winner

The Grumps

Park Street is a perfectly normal street, apart from the fact that it has a floating house with a piece of earth attached underneath. You see, number 64 Park Street has been owned by the same family through generations. That family was known as THE GRUMPS.

It was a bright and sunny day on Park Street, like any other normal day, and the Grumps were arguing through their morning routine. “Where’s my toothbrush?” exclaimed John Grump. John was a small plump boy with red rosy cheeks and light brown hair. He was 11 years old.  John wore ripped denim jeans and a yellow t-shirt with so many stains there wasn’t one bit of yellow left (apart from mustard of course). “I don’t know, but where’s my hairbrush?” shouted Sarah Grump. Sarah was a ragged girl not much older than her brother; several teeth were yellow and a few had even fallen out. She had dyed blue hair and wore dark green tracksuit pants which (if you ask me) did not go well with her light blue t-shirt, which was also covered in stains. Sarah and her brother looked like they had matching t-shirts even though one was blue and the other yellow. Of course, you couldn’t see this because of all the stains. “Oh, would you stop screaming!”, yelled Mrs and Mr Grump in unison. Mr and Mrs Grump are grumpy old lads, in fact their name describes them perfectly. They both wore old scrappy clothes and had dark messy hair that was so SCRUFFY and disorganised you could mistake it for an octopus' tentacles.

The Grumps were very well known on Park Street for the continuous screaming and racket that came from their house. Everyone on Park Street was SO fed up with the Grumps, even the trees had headaches and regularly the tree leaves would rustle from their blaring arguments. The Grumps lived on a levitating piece of earth about 20 metres above the ground and they could STILL be heard throughout the whole neighbourhood. Centuries earlier, so the story goes, the Grumps levitated their house out of the ground because people hated them so much (but who knows if that is actually true). Theirs was a peach yellow and red house with bay windows and long grass growing around it (not well maintained as far as one could see). The house had been out of the ground for so long that numerous cracks started to form in the piece of earth attached below it. The only person who ever went up the spiral staircase leading to their house was the postman. In fact, most people didn’t even know about the staircase because it was hidden behind the house, and those that do know about it just don’t EVER want to go up there.

Sorry, let's get back to the story. After their morning routine the Grumps settled into their tiger skin fur couch and began their daily 8-hour T.V routine. The Grumps’ house was surprisingly pleasant to look at from the outside and the inside (once seen many years ago by the mailman) was well maintained with a beautiful marble floor throughout and 2 tiger skin fur couches in the main living area; where the Grumps spent most of their time.  Definitely not the type of house you would expect given the appearance of its inhabitants. Every day, half-way through their T.V routine, the mailman came. The mailman went by the name of Gary Snud. Gary wore a light blue uniform and travelled from house to house, delivering the mail by bike. Gary came from a long line of mailmen.  In fact, Gary’s father, grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather had delivered the mail to the Grumps over the centuries. 

Gary hated delivering the mail to the Grumps, he was so afraid of them  (from all the stories he had heard over the years) he usually dropped the mail before he even got to the mailbox, then he would rush back down the stairs as fast as he could to get to his bike and ESCAPE. The truth is that the Grumps had never seen him, spoke to him nor even waved at him; never mind hurt him, but he was still petrified of them.

On the day of our story the mailman slowly stepped up to the mailbox (like every other day) trying to conquer one of his fears, which include the Grumps, chips, people wearing hats and the one and only 64 Park Street mailbox. He slowly slid the plain white envelope into the mail slot. “YES!” he shouted in triumph, then he rushed over to the staircase to make his escape. Suddenly, Gary slipped and the worst thing possible happened...

The Goody-Two Shoes, a neighbouring family who lived directly across the road at 65 Park Street, were watching in horror as the frightened mailman clung onto the edge of the levitating lawn with his fingernails. The Goody-Two Shoes family had been the Grumps nemesis throughout generations, but the fact was this generation of both families had NEVER actually met. The Goody-Two Shoes were also a family of four who went by the names of Craig, Dom, James and Cindy. Craig and Dom were around the same age as John and Sarah Grump. They wore matching dungarees with white and blue checkers and a dark blue t-shirt with neatly polished black shoes. Their parents James and Cindy wore different clothes (thankfully). James wore a neat black suit with a striped tie and polished black shoes and Cindy wore a thin red skirt and a red long-sleeved t-shirt. All of Cindy’s clothes were red, it was her favourite colour. The Goody-Two Shoes watched in horror as the panicked mailman clung onto the edge of the floating piece of earth. “Oh no” they screaming pointing to the mailman’s dangling body as he yelped for HELP.

Back up at 64 Park Street the Grumps heard a panicked scream coming from outside. For the first time in years the Grumps departed their levitating home to see what was going on. To their horror, Gary the mailman was hanging on the edge of their land. The only way the Grumps recognised the mailman was because of his uniform, as they had NEVER actually seen him before. The Grumps didn’t know what to do… Should they save him? Should they leave him? What should they do? Without thinking, instinctively, all four of them rushed over and pulled the mailman up to safety. By this time the whole of Park Street was watching with bated breath. “What a kind act!” the whole street said in harmony. EVERYONE clapped and screamed with joy.

As they clapped and screamed with happiness and relief something very peculiar occurred, the floating piece of earth with the Grumps’ house on top de-levitated to where it used to sit. The mailman was so grateful he could literally jump for joy, he was back on solid ground SAFELY. The whole street cheered for the Grumps and they were welcomed, with open arms (after they all washed), back into the community. The next day the Goody-Two Shoes paid the Grumps a visit and both families sat down for tea and became great friends.  The whole of Park Street learnt a great lesson that day that it is important not to judge a book by its cover.

A new generation of Grumps and Goody-Two Shoes now live beside each other in harmony and tell anyone who cares to ask the tale of the day that changed the landscape forever.  The Grumps even have a new mailman called Michael Snub, the son of the famous Gary Snub, who delivers mail daily to all houses in Park Street; although he does have a new fear when he approaches number 64, the 3-foot Labrador who greets him every day with a slobbery tongue.  So, if you ever drive down Park Street be sure to take time to visit the statue that has been erected of the Grumps saving the mailman, reminding everyone of the day the levitating house finally came back to EARTH.