FLAT STANLEY
If you have children or grandchildren in 1st grade, chances are you have heard about Flat Stanley. If you aren’t familiar with him, he’s like a paper doll cut out where the children add a face and clothes to Stanley and color him to their liking. The idea is to send him friends or family and keep a diary of what Stanley did. When my grandson was in 1st grade, he made his Stanley and gave him to my hubby and me. We took Stanley to work with us where he helped make window treatments, we took him grocery shopping and he even rode our Harley’s. When school was done for the day, Zac would work with us at our store so he got to check on Stanley to make sure he was behaving. After the week was over, we had to say goodbye to Stanley and Zachary took him back to school. I think it was as much fun for me having Stanley with us as it was for the 1st graders making them!
Fast forward five years later in 2010, Zac was 11 years old, when we relocated our shop a few blocks from our original store. Zachary and his family had since relocated to Indiana, he was such a big help at our store and was worried about pop having to do such much without him being there to help out.
One day I got the mail and there was an envelope from Zac. I was so surprised to see he had made another Flat Stanley for us! Zac put a note in the envelope saying he made Stanley to help us out since he wasn’t able to be with us. Stanley was always at work with us and then one day he took a walk and never came back. I was so sad that Stanley was gone. BUT, there is a happy ending to this story. I found Stanley in the garage the other day, he’s doing fine except missing an arm. He never told me where he had been or what happened to his arm, I was just so happy to see him again.
Of course, this brought back wonderful memories from the first Flat Stanley that Zac had made and how caring and giving he has always been. Zac was always willing to help pop whether it be at our store or in the yard.
Sometimes all it takes is a silly little thing like Flat Stanley to bring back memories of a little boy with such a big, caring heart.
Zachary is now 18 years old, works full-time at an auto detailing shop and he still continues his caring ways to everyone. I am so proud of Zachary and love him so much!
I’d love to read your comments below about your memories of Flat Stanley.
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I did this when I taught second grade. It was so much fun to share when we returned..
I can imagine the fun seeing where so many Stanley’s visited! When I received my grandson’s 2nd Stanley, I was surprised he still had fond memories of his first one. Thanks for stopping by Rhonda.