Can released their album “Delay” when Malcolm Mooney was still their lead singer, before the Damo Suzuki era.
One song goes on about Frog and Toad, two characters, once mysterious and meaningless to me, but I know them well now.
In two books, each a collection of short stories for the youngest readers, I have come to know these individuals: Frog And Toad All Year, and Frog And Toad Are Friends.
Frog And Toad Are Friends contains five stories.
“Spring” dwells upon a subject familiar to residents of the Northwest: SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Toad is in a state of utter paralysis– house all shuttered, the “November” page still on his calendar. Frog looks for Toad inside his tiny two-story cottage. “Blah.” “I am not here.” “Go away.” Frog literally drags Toad outdoors into the Sun. “It’s Spring! We can begin a whole new year together,” he encourages Toad.
See? So many people think of Spring as the first season of a year. Toad tells Frog to come back “about half past May.”
“But I will be lonely until then,” Frog says, and that explains why he tears off every page of the calendar until he gets to May. He wakes Toad, who sees the May page on his calendar and climbs out of bed.
The story ends with Frog and Toad gesticulating together along a road of green grass sprouting through snow.
“The Story” illustrates the combination of selflessness and masochism often present in the case of a writer, an artist– a storyteller, in this story.
Toad visits Frog, who is in bed, feeling ill. “Tell me a story while I am resting,” Frog requests.
“Let me think of a story to tell you,” says Toad. He could have told Frog any story, but, as any true creative type will appreciate, Toad likes nothing better than the challenge to recreate the wheel. He wants to tell a new story, so he walks around the porch, but found no inspiration. He stood on his head– no story. He poured glasses of water over his head– no story. He banged his head against the wall. No story.
Frog is feeling better. Never mind the story, he says. “I feel terrible,” Toad says, and gets into the bed himself. “Would you like me to tell you a story?” Frog asks. “Yes.” Toad falls asleep as Frog tells the story of what Toad had just done.
Frog wanted a story, and now he has one.
“A Lost Button” begins with a familiar experience– after a long walk, Toad discovers that, somewhere along the way, he lost a button.
Despite Toad’s hurting feet, they retrace their steps to look for the button. Maybe they will find it right away; maybe not at all. Frog finds a button, but it is not Toad’s. A sparrow brings Toad a button he found, but it is not Toad’s. A raccoon brings him a button, but it is not Toad’s. In the meadow, the woods, the river, the mud, they search, to no avail. Toad screams at the world, runs home, and slams the door. On the floor, there is his button.
Toad sewed all the buttons he was given onto his jacket and gave it to Frog, who dances for joy.
When a button is lost, no other button will do. Out of confusion, clarity and creativity.
“A Swim” highlights a difference between Frog and Toad: Toad wears a bathing suit. Frog does not. Toad tells Frog that after he puts on his bathing suit, he must not look at him until he gets in the water, because he looks funny in his bathing suit.
When the two friends are ready to leave the water, a turtle comes along. Frog explains to the turtle why he should please go away. Some lizards nearby are curious. A snake overhears and says he wants to see Toad looking funny in his bathing suit. So do two dragonflies and a field mouse.
Frog tells Toad everyone wants to see how funny he looks in his bathing suit. Toad resolves to wait them out. Finally he begins to catch a cold, and climbs out of the water. Everyone, even Frog, laughs. Toad says “Of course I look funny,” picks up his clothes, and, head high, eyes closed, walks home.
After all, he had told them he looks funny in his bathing suit. He has the satisfaction of having been right about himself, his bathing suit, and his audience.
“The Letter” ends the book on a hopeful note. Toad sits on his porch at his “sad time of day.” He waits for the mail, but he never gets any.
Frog hurries home and writes Toad a letter. He instructs a snail to deliver it. He returns to Toad’s house, but Toad has given up.
Frog spills the beans. He tells Toad he has written him a letter, and even tells him what the letter says.
Four days later, the snail arrives with the letter.
Toad could have complained that he had had to virtually ask for a letter from Frog, but he has the insight to recognize that, what he had wanted, he got– a letter. He was grateful for that.