GRIZ BEAR COMMENTS | Just in case life gets a little flat

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

— He arrived Thursday - in a big manilla envelope - and he’s staying for a week. Who is he? He’s a flat Stanley, renamed Flat Riley by our grandson who chose to use his own name for the character drawn on a file folder with crayons rather than his brother Stanley’s name.

The character that arrived is a part of a school project for our fifth-grade grandson who lives back in northwest Kansas. According to the teacher’s note sent along with our grandson’s artwork, the students are mailing out the flat characters as a part of a school project based upon the Jeff Brown book,Flat Stanley. In the book, Stanley Lambchop was squashed flat by a falling bulletin board, making it possible for his parents to put him in a big envelope and mail him to friends in California for a visit.

Anyway, we are to take Flat Riley with us on our journeys around the community. He is to accompany us as we attend events and visit places of interest. We are to keep a journal of his travels and take photos of the places he has visited and then mail him, his travel photos, souvenirs and journal back to our grandson so that students in his classroom back in Kansas can learn about another community and region of the country.

Flat Riley has already been to work with my wife and had his picture taken with a whole group of nurse-aide students. He even got kissed by a couple of the pretty young ladies in my wife’s classroom.

Flat Riley rode with us in the back seat of my car Sunday, safely buckled in, of course. Mrs. Griz has photos to prove it.

Following church services, Flat Riley had his picture taken at our church and at numerous other places around the community. Fortunately for me, I got to take the photos. My wife held him in each of the photos since he doesn’t very well stand up for himself.

We took his photo at a number of places we’ve taken our grandson Riley when he visited. We took his picture at the Wild Wilderness Safari, on Gentry’sMain Street, in Flint Creek on the low-water bridge in Springtown and several other places around town.

With the aid of a photo editing program, I was also able to place Flat Riley in a few other places we’ve visited during my grandson’s visits without actually driving back there and placing him for a new photo. Certainly, that must be acceptable with the economy being what it is. Who can afford to drive all over the region to places we’ve already visited and photographed just to take a new photo with a character with somewhat of a flat personality?

I will confess that I’ve also placed him in a few places my grandson hasn’t been. Riley is too young to go skydiving, but his flat version is pictured suspended in the sky under a canopy chute. He didn’t get to go up in a hot-air balloon when he was here, but his much slimmer version is hanging on the side of the basket. He hasn’t actually traveled to the moon, but he’s there on the moon, clear as can be, in one of my photographs.

Taking Flat Riley photos is just a little embarrassing. I can’t help but wonder what people must think when they see a 50-year-old couple stop and get out of a car to take a photo and then pull out and unfold a flat character drawn with crayons by a fifth grader and make him the center of attention. Hopefully not too many people saw us!

I was glad Mrs. Griz was the one in the photos with Flat Riley. Being behind the camera and taking the photos was embarrassing enough for this old photographer.

Of course, I might not get off quite that easy. Mrs. Griz is telling me I need to take Flat Riley to a local fifth-grade class, introduce him to students and take his photo there.

Hmmm, isn’t there some sort of limit on the things a guy has to do to keep his wife happy!

Well, maybe if I am too embarrassed to do it for her, I might still have to carry around Flat Riley for my grandson. And since it’s for his education, how can I say no?

(Correction of sorts: In last week's column, I wrote of being down with pneumonia. As it turns out, it may not have been pneumonia at all, unless as a side effect. Cultures revealed Rocky Mountain spotted fever as the likely cause of my illness over the past several weeks. Yes, He still holds my life and breath in His hand.)

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be reached by e-mail at rmoll @ nwaonline .com.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 10/06/2010