Every once in a while, especially around Christmastime, I think about a funny little elf named Juniperperper. The thought of him brings back memories of one childhood Christmas when the Daily New-Record published a serial story about him during the weeks leading up to Christmas. My memory is foggy, but I guess Mom probably read the story to Danny and me each day. Even though I have forgotten the details of the story, I remember Juniperperper fondly to this day.
This year, as you can probably guess, I found Juniperperper on the internet! He happened to pop into my mind while I was sitting at my desk, and of course, I Googled him. There's not much to find, but with a little work, I was able to piece together The Elf Who Couldn't Do Anything Right, by Bob Boyle, in its entirety.
If you would like to read Juniperperper's story, you can find it piece-by-piece in the following links. Most of the links will take you directly to the article, but for a few you will need to navigate to the story yourself.
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8 - Navigate to page 7 (newspaper page 13).
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11 - Navigate to page 17 (newspaper page 33).
- Chapter 12
Thank you, Bob Boyle, for this story. Thank you, newspapers, for publishing it. Thank you, Mom, for reading it to us kids. And thank you to whoever put all those old newspapers on the internet. I enjoyed reading Juniperperper's story, as well as bumping into other childhood memories in the process: Roses, Ralph Sampson, Ronald Reagan, and the 1984 Redskins (who won their division the year this story was published). Merry Christmas, y'all!
