May 24, 2008 – Flat Martin (aka Flat Stanley)
Flat Stanley is a popular children’s book where Stanley has the misfortune of being flattened underneath a billboard that falls down on him. He soon discovers that life paper-thin does have its advantages, like being able to slide under closed doors, being used as a kite, and being able to cheaply mail himself for traveling.
The story has been adopted by many elementary teachers to a fun project. Martin’s teacher traced his outline on a piece of paper, Martin colored it to look like him, and then was laminated and sent off to Auntie Kathy in California. The recipient of a Flat Stanley has an obligation to take Flat Stanly with them and document what Flat Stanley does and where he goes, then send him back in the mail with the stories of his journey.
Clint Eastwood brought his daughter’s Flat Stanley as his guest to the Academy Awards. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger brought his son’s Flat Stanley on the campaign trail.
We were very surprised to see that Auntie Kathy had made international travel arrangements for Flat Martin! Here is Flat Martin at a train station in Frankfurt, Germany with a co-worker of Auntie Kathy. Also as part of his European vacation, he visited Amsterdam.
When Flat Martin got home, he went for a ride in the real Martin’s car seat!
Flat Martin hangs out with Martin in the barn.
Flat Martin was getting too lazy, so we made him mow the lawn!
We tried to show Flat Martin how to drive the tractor, but he wasn’t so good!
He was good, however, wrapping around the wind turbine pole where his flatness really helps!
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #73″
2 Responses to “May 24, 2008 – Flat Martin (aka Flat Stanley)”
Jorine says:
May 28, 2008 at 5:53 am
Dear Mark and Linda,
The pleasure was all mine to bring Flat Martin to Europe! Thanks for sending the link. Really nice to see the picture on your website.
Regards,
Jorine
Lonnie Chu says:
June 12, 2009 at 8:14 am
I had never heard of Flat Stanley before my son Scott, at age 20, sent me the photo you see here: http://scottturbee.com/?page_id=37 He said that a Flat Stanley had come to the Culinary Institute of America from a nearby elementary school. So Scott took Flat Stanley all over the place as he went through his school day, taking classes (which means a lot of cooking!) and giving tours. He made sure Flat Stanley was properly dressed for the occasion.
I found your website while looking for images of growing buckwheat. I have about 200 square feet of urban front yard in Syracuse, NY, that I’m considering planting in buckwheat. Your blog is a tremendous source of information and entertainment!