I found the squishy stress toy horse pictured above under a table at a pizza parlor where I used to work. At first I felt bad for the poor kid that had lost it, but when I saw that the ears had been chewed off I realized that the horse was lucky to have escaped from its previous owner. I named him Happy (drag out the "h" when you say it) because I couldn't help but smile whenever I looked at him. I started hiding him around the restaurant and when my coworkers would always laugh when they stumbled upon him. I took Happy with me to college and I was always on the lookout for a companion horse so he wouldn't be alone. Years later I was in a coffee shop that had toys for little kids and there she was, a shiny Lego or Playmobil girl horse that was just the right size. I'm almost afraid to admit, but I shoplifted that day my friends (or toynapped or horseganked or whatever you want to call it). Now everyone's happy (pun intended) though, except for the other day when my two year-old son was playing with the horses and he started saying "broken, broken, broken." He pointed out the chewed-off ears and said "Daddy, fix it" and I smiled again, but certainly not for the last time.
Another knickknack that has followed me for years is this Spider-Man drinking mug/pen jar. If I can't clean some sticky ink out of the inside I might have to throw it away, but not before telling you about me and Spider-Man. Like most people, I saw him in the jazzy 1967 animated series long before I ever saw him in a comic book or strip. I liked how without the mask he was an unpopular guy, always sneezing and getting picked on but when he put the mask on, he could be anybody. And Spider-Man really can be anybody underneath that mask, that's what's so great about it - he could be white, black, young, old, me or maybe even you. My first superhero comic book was
Amazing Spider-Man #327. It featured my favorite villain (Magneto) going up against a cosmic-powered Spider-Man who could fly and mentally rearrange molecules. I bought it more for the artwork than the story. I mean, granted, everyone wishes they could fly but as a kid you never saw me pretending to fly. What you would see is me slapping my hands against the wall and jumping from foot to foot pretending to be "wall-crawling." As a teenager, when friends would ask what to get me for gifts, I used to say "anything Spider-Man." But that all changed around the time a friend bought me this mug. They've sinced returned to the original swooping logo but during the '90s they switched to a straight logo with what appeared to be dripping letters. I hated it. And this mug was the last Spider-Man merchandise I got until after my son was born. Maybe I should hold on to it in case they tweak the logo again.
I found the squishy stress toy horse pictured above under a table at a pizza parlor where I used to work. At first I felt bad for the poor kid that had lost it, but when I saw that the ears had been chewed off I realized that the horse was lucky to have escaped from its previous owner. I named him Happy (drag out the "h" when you say it) because I couldn't help but smile whenever I looked at him. I started hiding him around the restaurant and when my coworkers would always laugh when they stumbled upon him. I took Happy with me to college and I was always on the lookout for a companion horse so he wouldn't be alone. Years later I was in a coffee shop that had toys for little kids and there she was, a shiny Lego or Playmobil girl horse that was just the right size. I'm almost afraid to admit, but I shoplifted that day my friends (or toynapped or horseganked or whatever you want to call it). Now everyone's happy (pun intended) though, except for the other day when my two year-old son was playing with the horses and he started saying "broken, broken, broken." He pointed out the chewed-off ears and said "Daddy, fix it" and I smiled again, but certainly not for the last time.
Another knickknack that has followed me for years is this Spider-Man drinking mug/pen jar. If I can't clean some sticky ink out of the inside I might have to throw it away, but not before telling you about me and Spider-Man. Like most people, I saw him in the jazzy 1967 animated series long before I ever saw him in a comic book or strip. I liked how without the mask he was an unpopular guy, always sneezing and getting picked on but when he put the mask on, he could be anybody. And Spider-Man really can be anybody underneath that mask, that's what's so great about it - he could be white, black, young, old, me or maybe even you. My first superhero comic book was Amazing Spider-Man #327. It featured my favorite villain (Magneto) going up against a cosmic-powered Spider-Man who could fly and mentally rearrange molecules. I bought it more for the artwork than the story. I mean, granted, everyone wishes they could fly but as a kid you never saw me pretending to fly. What you would see is me slapping my hands against the wall and jumping from foot to foot pretending to be "wall-crawling." As a teenager, when friends would ask what to get me for gifts, I used to say "anything Spider-Man." But that all changed around the time a friend bought me this mug. They've sinced returned to the original swooping logo but during the '90s they switched to a straight logo with what appeared to be dripping letters. I hated it. And this mug was the last Spider-Man merchandise I got until after my son was born. Maybe I should hold on to it in case they tweak the logo again.
1 comment:
I smile every time I see Happy. He seems "complete" now he has Elle. And I love his ears - they are perfect.
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