Show & Tell

I read about a new "Meet Up" group recently. Meet Ups are ways for people with similar interests to get together - they're marketed through social media like Facebook and via email. There are meet ups for dancing, sports, books, politics, games, kids - and now..."Show and Tell" - link.

You remember "Show and Tell" don't you? School children have a chance to show their classmates and teacher something that is important to them and tell about it. I'm sure this exercise has many educational benefits.

When I first saw the Des Moines Register article about a "Show and Tell" meeting - I thought that it might be kinda interesting. Then I read about some of the telling...um, sounded a bit boring to me. Maybe if they had time limits it might be okay. One guy showed his grandfather's straight edge razor and talked about trying to shave with it - evidence: a photo of his bloody face. It sounds like a storytelling group with props. Some people are probably better at it than others.

I bet nobody took a kitten in a castle! That's what I did in 4th grade. Or was is 5th? That was when we got our kitten Harold - named after Harold Parks (I think that's right) the Administrator at the Cass County Memorial Hospital where my mother served on the Board of Directors. I was dying to take the new kitty (I think it was really supposed to be Betsy's - a present for her birthday) for Show & Tell - but Mom didn't want Harold running loose in the car during the trip to school.

Back then there weren't nice pet carriers available. So we used the next best thing - a Little Kiddle Castle. Genius! Little Kiddles were popular dolls that Betsy adored.

They weren't big dolls - hence the name

Our castle didn't look quite like this one - it had a handle for easy carrying and high windows that Harold pressed her face into - looking quite comical. We loaded her in through the draw bridge. It sure made the whole class laugh!

The next laughable thing was when Betsy came out from our room a year or so later and said "There are kittens under my bed!" We didn't believe her of course - she was just a little kid. But it was true - Harold was a girl! And she had gotten together with a boy cat at some point.

We kept the cute little furry things until their eyes were open and then they all took a trip to the Wickman Farm where they lived happily ever after as farm cats.