Flat Stanley came to visit this past weekend.  He arrived by mail, just like in the book, and we were so excited to see him.  My husband decided Flat Stanley needed the royal treatment!  So, he got the full tour.  Now, some of you may not be familiar with Flat Stanley so let me tell you a little about him.

Flat Stanley is a character from a children’s book.  In the book, Stanley is flattened by a bulletin board (I think that’s right) and he remains flat.  He isn’t killed, harmed in any way… he’s just… well, flat.  FLAT AS A PIECE OF PAPER.  So, his family puts him in an envelope and sends him off to California for vacation.

Now, I have to say, I have some nephews in particular that are quite jealous of this ability.  Especially Ben, the one who sent Flat Stanley to see me.  So, now you know who Flat Stanley is.  But why did he visit us?

Flat Stanley offers wonderful teaching and learning opportunities.  My nephew Ben wrote a letter (letter writing is an important skill) to ask us to show Stanley around our community, take a picture or two, and send him back.  When a class room full of Flat Stanley clones arrive back in Ben’s classroom they will have a wealth of information from all of the places they were sent!  I wish I was teaching elementary school just so I could do a Flat Stanley project!

Ben wrote the letter to me, but he added a note at the bottom.  “Show this to Uncle Bruce, too,” it said.  So I did and boy, did Uncle Bruce have a ball!  First, Uncle Bruce took a picture of Flat Stanley with a bag of grits.  Can’t get more Southern than that!  Then we took Stanley in the convertible downtown Newberry where he saw the opera house, the town square, the memorial, the book store (with Aunt Miriam’s book), an ice cream store and the Chamber of Commerce.  That evening we took Flat Stanley to Columbia, the state capital.  I even got to see some things I hadn’t seen before.  There is an amazing African-American memorial at the capital, as well as the Confederate Memorial and the capital itself.  The gardens around the capital are beautiful. For supper we took Flat Stanley to Maurice’s BBQ where we introduced him to mustard based BBQ.  Then it was off to Krispy Kream to see how they make their fantastic donuts.  We had to try some of course.

On Sunday Flat Stanley had his picture taken with Aunt Miriam at church, and on Monday he went to Newberry Hospital to visit one of Aunt Miriam’s friends.  All in all, I think Stanley enjoyed his visit.  I think though, Flat Stanley’s got the biggest kick out of his new uniform.  Uncle Bruce felt he needed a Confederate uniform so, yep, you guessed it!  Uncle Bruce designed one on the computer and Flat Stanley was mailed home in historic garb!

Thank you, Ben for sending Flat Stanley to visit and I sure hope that you get to come soon yourself!

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