Show & Tell: Mayday!
"Do me a favor: make me braver"
Show and Tell has been an ongoing theme for me on this platform, and in life. For what else do we writers do but share in these ways, words matched with an image (literal or evoked). As a word person but also a multi-arts maker, I like a visual paired with my textual like I like a fig jelly on cheese, and often fantasize about making a sort of graphic novel someday that depends as much on its pictures as a children’s book, inserting images among the pages that are equally driving the story.
On that note, there’s a new Tarry lit mag forming in my neighborhood that wants both art and words, in various genres, shapes and sizes, related to the Tarrytowns and our Washington Irving legacy—which of course all hinges on Sleepy Hollow, my whole schtick—so check it out wherever you are and submit here. I love a good call to action and adding the 101th thing to my plate (crackers? grapes?), so I’m working on it.
In the interest of bringing the kindergarten sweetness and old timey connection of a Show and Tell to my community, I hosted a live event in October which resulted in the public reveal of amazing reverberating objects like this heavyweight Ichabod’s head my friend Michael Baker’s been dragging along like a curse, or this hairball train Lyndhurst Mansion coughed up from its cupboard. It was a big hit and I’m thrilled to report I’m doing this again, only in May (Mayday!) without as many tourists and historical artifacts to rely on. My hope is that we regular folks with insignificant oddities that matter most will come out and play this sharing game in a casual open-mic-y kind of setting with our friends and neighbors. More info below if you’re nearby or want to be.
PICTURESOUND
Once I thought a whole parade of ugliness was worth celebrating, one episode reserved for the ugliest toys. But what about the coolest toys you most coveted or missed out on ever meeting because you were born maybe a decade too late? I think I would have dug this actual Show ‘N Tell device I’ve just discovered, with, not to worry, many versions still available on eBay, including a lime green model for $200 and many of the booklets that went with them.
From ToyTales, the full story on this plastic mullet of a contraption which combines a record player on top with a pseudo TV on the bottom for the kiddos.
In 1964, General Electric (G.E.) released a phonographic/filmstrip viewer aimed at the growing children’s education and entertainment markets. Advertised as a home entertainment center, the Show ‘N Tell was built to resemble a small television set and deftly combined a four-speed phonograph with an 11-inch monitor for slide film viewing.
G.E. produced a series of “picturesound” programs that worked with the Show ‘N Tell. Each program consisted of a book; a 7-inch, 33 1/3 record; and a strip of 16mm color film dubbed the “Show Film.” The company initially released 35 programs, grouped into seven categories: Fairy Tales and Cartoons; Children’s Favorite Classics I; Children’s Favorite Classics II; History, Science & Space; The World We Live In; and, Steps to Knowledge. Within a year, G.E. had over 140 picturesound programs on the market.
The record and filmstrip worked in concert. As the turntable spun, the audio from the record played through the Show ‘N Tell’s built-in speaker and the filmstrip would automatically advance to display related images on the screen. Each program was approximately 4 minutes in length and moved through 15 color slides.
The Show ‘N Tell initially hit the market at a price point of $29.95, a fairly hefty price back in the day. G.E. attempted to mitigate any cost concerns by also marketing the Show ‘N Tell as a standard record player, able to play 16, 33⅓, 45, and 78 RPM records.
The booklets that you bought separately to go with this, each to their own story, contain the record, a film strip, and some satisfying blurbs and graphics. For those who really enjoyed pouring over things like an LP jacket or a cereal box, I know having paper supplementing the performance would have been such a treat. The growing menu of tales and lessons to choose from covered the world and beyond from The Wizard of Oz seen below to Swiss Family Robinson, Alice in Wonderland, history lessons in Indian Powwow, Clipper Ships: Greyhounds of the Sea, important questions addressed such as: Would You Eat Flowers?, Where Does Rain From?, Do Dolphins Talk?, taking the time to wonder Which Way is North? and even make stuff: Let’s Paint Pictures.
Of course, you can witness a dude unboxing and gutting the whole thing on YouTube, or you can just watch this adorable version of Dorothy efficiently collecting a crew for the Wizard, complete with old record fuzz.
It’s so simple it makes me pine for the time before screen addiction, before each kid merged with their own personal device and sealed themselves in their private chambers until pried out for dinner. To gather around on the living room floor and listen to a scratchy thing, and watch something so spare, with plenty still left to the imagination. There’s an end to it. You do this a bit and the record completes, the film reel stops. You move on to another activity, maybe even in the yard, with other kids. You beg your parents to buy more booklets or perhaps might even borrow them from the library.
This script of the Wiz is quick and interspersed with the singsong “Down the yellow brick road we go” as our hapless heroine gathers those lacking organs like it’s a scavenger hunt:
Tinman, crying: I rusted because it rained. Where to?
Dorothy: To see the wizard.
Tinman: Will he give me a heart?
Dorothy: Come on, we’ll find out.
Or, next:
Lion, growling.
Dorothy: He’s biting Toto! Stop that! [smack]
Lion, crying: You hit me!
Dorothy: Crybaby.
Lion: Do me a favor, make me braver?
Dorothy: We’ll ask the wizard. Come on.
What is life if not a big Show and Tell, full of head-scratching displays of humanity against challenges like rust and fear. What do we seek? Approval? Sympathy? A heart? Many are clamoring to share, a rare few are really good at listening. May both types come to my gathering. Will I play along or just hide behind hosting? I look through my house, a small house dense with minor objects of next to no value, and yet none of them inspire me to talk about them in public. Ichabod’s head has put too much pressure on this. What would you choose from your hoard? Kids say and share the darndest things, so perhaps we can look to them for the real inspiration and how anything-goes at the classic elementary Show and Tell…
SHOCK AND AWE
Lucky for us, there’s a forum of early childhood education teachers on Reddit who are sharing the very thing I was needing. “What’s the weirdest thing a child has brought to show and tell?” with hundreds of comments or, even better, an older archived thread with thousands, “Teachers of Reddit, What’s the most interesting thing a child has brought in for show and tell?
Here we go with some highlights on the multi-sensory parade of wow:
For me it was a 4 year old who brought a stuffed pheasant that his uncle had killed. He told the class he slept with it every night.
My fave was a new big sis who brought nipple cream and took a baby doll and proceeded to explain why you would use it and tried to demo in front of her classmates. This was probably 20 years ago but still gives me a laugh.
We had a child who always brought in weird “lovies” and it was the highlight of my day to see what she would bring to carry around all day. Multiple times she would bring a container of ice which would slowly melt throughout the day. Once she brought in a hardboiled egg in a shell and insisted on carrying it around (we knew at this point that if she brought in food like this it was to hold, not to eat). she was surprisingly gentle with it but eventually I found a point to swap it out with a fake egg so it wouldn’t get gross lol. Another kid regularly brought in dirty wipes from home (not poop, just dust) to sleep with.
I had a kiddo bring in a squishy penguin. Nothing too odd, but she threw it in our Show and Tell bin in the morning and it landed in there face down. We didn't see until the end of the day that its face was completely chewed off. She took claim to eating its face and she was so proud.
Their parents’ unwashed underwear. I don’t think Mom knew and we just rolled it up in a bag of dirty clothes from that day and put it back in their bag. Child was preschool-aged.
Grandpa’s glass eye.
A giant dead spider.
An unused tampon applicator that they used for “doctor shots.”
Their own preserved umbilical cord.
His baby brother’s placenta in a jar.
A kid a couple years lower than me had a dad that was a banker. He brought in some cool “play money” and even handed some out to kids, including me. When I showed my play money note to my parents, they were shocked to find it was actually 2 $100 bills (I’m from the UK). A letter from the school went out to all the parents asking them to bring it back to school.
One of my professors told me that when he was in first grade a kid in his class got his toe cut off in a lawnmower accident. The kid brought in his toe in a jar for Show and Tell.
In 2nd grade, I forgot to bring an item for Show and Tell. I had a somewhat loose tooth, so I excused myself to the bathroom, casually ripped out the tooth with my fingers, walked back and showed it off to the class.
A bit difficult but we had a pet day at school and most people just brought their cats and dogs. At lunch we did a big show where people with pets walked around in a large circle. I remember hysterically laughing cause this one girl brought her pet fish and was trying to walk with it. We were probably about 6 or 7 at the time so she was really struggling with the thing and trying to walk without sloshing the water. Props to her though, she loved her fish.
My sister’s class did Show and Tell [assigned by letter]. She got L so she tried to bring in our aunt. Couldn’t figure out why because her name starts with V and she’s an artist in NY...nothing L related. Of course everyone tells her this. Then sister gets all mad and is like “but lesbian starts with L!” She ended up taking an LP.
I had a kid in grade one bring in his sock. He said it was smelly and used it for training to cope with bad smells. 17 five year olds rolled on the floor in hysterics. Best Show and Tell ever.
Someone brought air in a bag from his room. He opened it and tried to get everyone to smell it. He told everyone afterwards it was just a fart and everyone just lost it.
One of my favorites is this kid that forgot to bring something to Show and Tell. Instead of panicking, he just pretended to hold something about a foot big in his hands and presented his ‘Invisible Car’. I’m talking describing the structure of the car, where he got it (it was some basic store like Walmart or something, I can’t remember), and how he liked to play with it. He even took extra care to ‘carry’ it back and put it carefully on his desk, moving it a bit to the side so he could access his colouring sheet.
This one guy I know brought in a limited edition Ultralord action figure... 7 weeks in a row
As a kindergartner, I once brought a homing pigeon to Show and Tell. The class tied a note to its leg and we released the bird. The next day for Show and Tell, I brought the note.
During COVID we had show and tell over Zoom. This one kid brought in a Slappy Ventriloquist Doll from the Goosebumps show. It was kinda terrifying, but she didn’t seem to mind. She doted on him like he was a baby. It was really hard to keep it together, it was so funny.
Damn, they don’t make things like they used to. And they definitely won’t let us bring those things to school.
This reminds me of my daughter in the basement around Halloween and her birthday attending “school” in a homemade cubby and displaying our black cat to the pandemic Google Meet of teacher and peers. Poe was not having it, but nice that the pandemic provided a nice workaround to be able to bring your pet to school.
WHAT’S IN THE BOTTOM OF YOUR GO-BAG?
Since it sure still feels pandemical around here, I can either cower, fight, or keep creating and connecting. I choose option C and invite you to join me. Here’s the blurb and flyer from my upcoming event:
Mayday! M’aidez! When it feels like the end-times, what object do you grab before you make a run for it? What’s in your go-bag? What’s the precious thing in your collapsing household you hold most dear? Come armed with an object (spectacular, strange, spooky, sentimental) saved from your cave, and share a 5 minute story, open mic-style, with your friends and neighbors in an intimate setting at the historic Hudson Valley Writers Center of Sleepy Hollow.
After an outstanding debut last October to a packed house, the SLEEPY HOLLOW SHOW & TELL, returns for round two on May 1. First-come, first-dibs for ten folks to tell a tale, plus one featured speaker.
Tickets are only $5 through the Writers Center.
Choose a General Admission ticket if you’d like to watch.
Choose a Show & Tell Participant ticket if you’d like to share (limited)!
Available for another $10 via cash or Venmo at the door, you can snag a signed copy of the new “best of” edition of Irving's classic THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW & Other Stories, produced here in the Hollow and introduced by local author and event host yours truly.
Yeah, that’s me with a scythe. What could go wrong?
[Appreciate what I produce here but don’t feel like committing to a paid subscription? Spare some change to Buy Me a Book.]
I wish I had that old GE Show'n'Tell toy, it looks like so much fun! I remember listening to story albums a lot as a kid. Oddly though, I don't remember ever having Show and Tell days at school, nor did my kids - I wonder if its a regional thing? But that can't be right, maybe just dependent on the school/teacher/curriculum etc?
This is pure delight. Equal parts nostalgia, chaos and charm.