Saturday, May 26, 2007

Kangaroo Exchange Student

Now here's something different. I was taking a fare of three cheerful ladies from the Upper West Side to Central Park South last Saturday evening and wasn't really paying much attention to them until they started taking pictures of something in the back seat. Looking back at them through the rear-view mirror, I thought I would see them taking snapshots of each other. Instead, they were propping up a little kangaroo doll and taking pictures of that.

This called for taxi-driver intervention. Why in the world would three sober, intelligent-looking women demonstrate such enthusiasm for a stuffed animal? I got the story, and here is my report...


Liz, Alice, and Christy (left to right) have been friends since high school in Philadelphia. Liz now lives in England, Alice lives in Massachusetts, and Christy lives in New York. They were together here for a reunion and, from the looks of it, having a wonderful time.

Liz has a five-year-old son, Henry, who goes to the Old Buckingham School in Suffolk, England. Henry's class has a "foreign exchange student" program with a class in a school in Australia. What happened was that Kelly the Kangaroo was sent to Great Britain and Harold the Hedgehog was shipped off to down under. And the classes exchange pictures and stories about the adventures of their mascots. Henry's teacher asked Liz to bring Kelly with her on her trip to New York and take pictures of her (that's a female kangaroo) in various New York City locations. Like a taxicab.

So that's the story. Just a bunch of dedicated people making the world a friendlier place - one kangaroo at a time.

5 comments:

  1. Really neat! I love stuff like that!!:)

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  2. If only it were possible to make the world a friendlier place. Sometimes I am amazed by the sheer rudeness of those that surround us. In a world where human kindness is becoming harder and harder to find, is it possible to still hold onto such treasured perceptions of human beings? I still have a small stuffed kangaroo from my childhood. Still seeing him makes me smile. And yes, it did help. Thankyou. X

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  3. How cool is that? Made me smile!
    Just out of curiosity, have you ever seen the "Cash Cab"? And I also heard of a memorial to 9/11 that a place sent out ceramic tiles across the country and had school children paint them. They are now up on display. Do you know anything about this place?

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  4. Iwanted to take my son to Australia for 4 weeks at least. My wife said they have crocodiles,Kangaroos that bite and snakes!.
    Now we are off to Boston and New York.
    I hope its a safer place.
    She should get out more,I blame it all on TV

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  5. mike - thanks, amigo, it's good to know you're reading my stories.

    tracey - of course it's possible to make the world a friendlier place! You just have to take "the world" one person at a time.

    sonja - I have never seen the "cash cab" on the street (a mini van with medallion #1G12), probably because I drive at night and I think they do all their filming during the day. Love that show, btw. Yes, the ceramic tiles are on display on a fence in Greenwich Village at the corner of Greenwich Avenue and 11th Street.

    john - what! You're coming to NYC! Let's get together for a beer. Contact me at my email address, nycgene@msn.com.

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