"Once upon a time in a land far away"¦"

Does that phrase conjure up fond memories and a warm, fuzzy feeling? It does for me, as well. A thousand fables, fairy tales and fantasy stories begin that way. I dare say that I have either read or heard most of them.

As a young child, I developed a voracious appetite for the written word. I still feed it.

My mother saved many of those well-worn books and passed them on to me throughout the years. I cherish them. The page corners are bent. The smudges here and there are remnants of errant jelly blobs. I loved my books, but I used them and it shows.

MISTS OF TIME

I heard a financial expert on public radio recently who started his piece by saying, "Once upon a time" when referring to previous recessions. I missed the rest of the news story as my reverie returned me to the old ivory-colored metal bedstead of my childhood.

The flashlight under the covers, pouring over those precious pages long after the rest of the household was fast asleep. Dead batteries in the morning, a testament to the fact that the "torch" had been left on all night.

Who first wrote that "Once upon a time" phrase? It appears that we'll never know. I've been trying to trace it back through the centuries and, to me at least, the origins are lost in the mists of time.

I started with the Oxford English Dictionary. It tells us that "Once upon a time" can be found in our literature at least as far back as 1380 and that within a couple of hundred years, it was showing up in many stories, both written and oral. It might actually have begun as a German phrase.

I have certainly used it often in my own storytelling with our offspring and in settings outside of our home.

Besides being utilized in English and German stories, one can find variations in at least two dozen other languages, as well.

I have also found the phrase being used in modern movies and television shows as well as in written works on many topics.

HAPPY ENDINGS

I'm an optimist. I believe that, no matter how dire things seem at any given moment, they will turn out okay in the end. That's why "Once upon a time" appeals to me.

It has been used to open gruesome tales, the likes of which some modern parents wouldn't even allow their children to read. But somehow, we were able to assimilate them without any disastrous effect.