The Ruby in the Idol's eye

Tim Hollingsworth sent me an email explaining how some of his story-telling skills arose:

"I do believe by the way that I learned any story telling skills I may have from your Dad. No one told a joke better than Uncle Bob. Actually, he appreciated them about as well as anyone too. I can kind of remember Grandpa Murphy telling us stories in bed, but they all seem to begin and end with "the ruby in the idol's eye."

I sent emails to Mike, Scott and Dad and Mike didn't seem to remember these stories from Grandpa Murphy. Here is what Scott wrote:

"I definelty remember Grandpa telling stories about the ruby in the idol. He told a lot of other stories about his travels in Africa. Took a while for me to realize he had never been out of this country."

Then Dad wrote:

"I do remember "the ruby in the idol's eye", but only vaguely. My father was a great story teller. He had a wide ranging imagination, and most certainly had read adventure stories. My sister, Vivian, said she thought, until she grew older, that he was, indeed, a world traveler with many adventures. I don't actually remember much about that particular story, but I think the ruby was regarded as a "trophy" of sorts for adventurers, and he was the one who was able to sneak into wherever the idol was, avoid whoever was on guard and pry the gem loose. I wish as I grew older I had reminded him and asked him to tell me some of those stories again. As kids, sometimes the value of such stuff in our memory banks escapes us."

These stories must be like the ones Dad told us kids about the Three Big Things. I have since spun stories about the Three Big Things to my kids and also to Morgan and Anya. Now I look forward to telling them to Jack and Molly.