Good-bye Mr. Happy: The Destiny of Things, Story LIV

Good-bye Mr. Happy:  The Destiny of Things, Story LIV

Mr. Happy is making at least four people happy today!  

 

Note from Buyer

 

You can't imagine how happy I am to finally find this. I've been looking for years to find one. My brother and I loved our Mr. Happy toys growing up (and still do) and this is the perfect present for him. Thank you so much. Please let me know if you come across another.

Hoarder History: Another teacher prop. I had two of these, one I used in the classroom and the other to show the class the condition I wanted it to stay in.  Yep, I started to buy two of things because my students needed to learn how to take care of things, especially other people's things.

I used mr teaching third grade skills- naming and relating to your own and others feelings and identifying feelings through facial expressions. Hope someone gets happy with Mr. Happy!

I love this series! I tried to collect the whole set for my classroom back in the day! Great way to teach feelings for ESL students (English as a Second Language) 

A few more other doubles made it through my teachings years.  One is the Spider character from the How Spider Saved...Series by Robert Kraus available here

Spider comes with the book How Spider Saved Valentine's Day.

The other is a vintage If You Give a Mouse A Cookie Doll with book here. 

I've seen the new remade ones of these, but they aren't as detailed as the vintage ones.  For instance his cookie has velcro on it, so it can be moved and his overall pockets are so realistic one can use them!

Saying Good-bye:

1.  I am so happy that mr. happy made someone else happy and that someone's brother is going to get happy with mr. happy!  It's another "destiny as infinity" story!  That's just happy piled on top of more happy!

2.  I used a lot of plush toys and dolls in the classroom!  They had two favorites, one was a tear apart stress doll called mr. boss.  I found him new in his box at a thrift store years ago.  He came in real handy with my students that had anger management issues and other's who thought he was fun to let off some steam or just have fun playing with him whether it be taking him apart or putting him back together. 

I forgot the name of the districts stress management program for the classroom, but it was count to 100, remove yourself from the situation or talk it out.

Sometimes counting to 100 slowly wasn't enough time for things to blow over, but some would remove themselves from the situation by running from the recess yard to the classroom to tear up mr. boss!

I couldn't find a picture of mr. boss, but I found mr. fisherman!

 pic courtesy of ThingsYoullLoveNLife and the fisherman stress doll is now on sale!

mr. boss had a cigar in one hand and a briefcase in the other.  One was allowed to rip them off and throw the pieces as far and hard as you wanted as long as it wasn't at another person, usually aimed at a closet door.  Students could do this privately or openly.  I wonder how many fights mr. boss prevented and how much anger he eased all those years.

Sadly, all I have left of mr. boss is his button.  I have it somewhere in my hoard and it says, "I'm the boss!"

The class' other favorite was a very large soft teddy bear.  He was three or four feet long and had a bell in his tail.  On rainy day recess schedule we'd stand in a big circle and throw him around to each other.  The classroom had very high ceilings, probably at least 20 feet high, so they had fun throwing him to each other.

Also he was our napping bear.  He was so big you could take him to the nap/snack desk and take a nap behind him or on him.  One of the challenges of inner city teaching is making sure one's student's basic needs are taken care of.  It's very difficult to teach a hungry student, or unhealthy student or one that needs glasses or student who's had a sleepless night due to constant noise, lack of warmth or who knows what.

I have many stories of why my students didn't get sleep when they were supposed to, but this post is already long.  Some of my inner teaching experiences I've written about are in Receipt Spike and Service Bell, Story XIII and Rewards as Motivation.

So not only were toys and dolls important teaching tools in the classroom, they came in handy in many other ways too!

What I Learned:

1.  I am beginning to get a clearer picture of how my hoarding relates to my teaching days.  I bought two of many things, so students could use one and the other as an example of how to keep "something" in good condition and take care of it, so it could be used for the next years class.

2.  I have many remnants of teaching tools, props and rewards in sets of at least 30 for classroom students, such as egg decorating examples,  stickers, honeycomb paper lanterns, tooth saver treasure chests, toothy tooth locket necklaces, electric pencil sharpener and small portable tape player.  And more in my hoard!

I even have clothes, belts and jewelry I bought as a beginning teacher I hardly even used that are at all three shops, 3 pieces at VintageToGoetsy, 12 pieces at HoarderRehab and the red cashmere coat at The Destiny of Things!

I have many unused student gifts too!  Like this copper apple pendant, sterling bangle with bells, beaded jewelry set, and Christmas tree brooch.  At one time I had saved everything and anything any student had given me and was cataloging them for my retirement, but it filled up a room and in one of my moves I donated it all.

These bracelets are even souvenirs from my first class field trip to Olvera Street, named after a local judge from 1877 and the oldest downtown area of Los Angeles, since 1911 and is part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument.  These earrings I bought for my first year teaching!  Another has already sold.

3.  I definitely have issues with unused gifts and keeping them just because someone gave it to me and it seems impolite to donate or regift them.  Many of the items at the shops are unused, used that day or lightly used gifts because I could not bare to do anything else with them but store them!  All I can say is at least they are vintage now!

What to do with unused gifts was one of the first things I learned about my hoarding issues due to writing about it so much in either "Side Kick Story" at VintageToGoetsy or "Hoarder History" on HoarderRehab.

Now I'm glad to be moving forward with dealing with my teaching things along with my feelings and issues of my drama trauma of being an inner city teacher!

Thank you JT for finding Mr. Happy and making a connection by leaving your story for me and supporting me in my HoarderRehab adventure:  The Destiny of Things!

Thank you etsy for another HoarderRehab connection possible!

Thank you US, UK, Germany, Australia, Vanessa of vanessasfancy from Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Venezuela and South Africa for supporting my HoarderRehab:  The Destiny of Things!

Related Stories:

1.  Freddie the Frog : Sentimental Nostalgic Childhood Memories from etsyian

2.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle:  sibling Valentine from childhood memories

3.  Precious Moments Betsey Clark figurine:  inside childhood joke for best friend Valentine

2.  Receipt Spike and Service Bell:  my inner city teacher challenges

3.  Rewards as Motivation : relates to my inner city teacher experiences

4.  Christmas Memories from Santa:  Story from Apartment Therapy where the comments tell more stories!

5.  Destiny as Infinity:  my 6th epiphany story of how some of my destiny as infinity wishes come true!