Mr. Bim's Bamboo

"We don't like bamboo," a woman told Mr. Bim. "We like new things. On the other side of the mountain we have plastic."

Her husband nodded. Then he said,

"We have plastic hats, plastic bowls,

Plastic mats and plastic poles.

We don't like old; we like what's new,

So we won't buy bamboo from you!"

Mr. Bim had never heard of plastic, so he politely smiled and bowed.

"I grow bamboo in my garden," he told the newcomers. "Where does your plastic grow?"

The man and the woman laughed.

"Plastic is made in factories!" the man said. "It's new and it's modern. Bamboo is old and worthless."

"Let's go to the other side of the mountain," everyone in the shop whispered.

"Bamboo foo! We want something new too!"

"But I always have used bamboo," Mr. Bim said. "It's the way I work."

"Then you need to change your ways," a tall man told him.

Mr. Bim's wrinkled face grew more wrinkled as everyone left. They had said his bamboo was old and worthless, and now he felt that way too.

"Maybe they'll come back another day," he told himself.

* Tuesday: A lonely shop.

Children's author Carol Farley lived in Seoul, South Korea, in the late 1970s--and she loved bamboo.

Earlier parts of this story will be on The Times' Web site at http://www.latimes.com/kids.