Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start.
When you read you begin with A, B, C.
When we talk about toys we begin with Ampu-E.T.
No, you heard me correctly, Ampu-E.T. The beloved E.T. stuffed doll I got the Christmas I was five – or at least I think I was five. I don’t actually remember a time in my life when I didn’t have E.T. One of my earliest memories was discovering that our Dalmatian, Belle, had chewed off E.T.s arm and I remember being so upset I chased her around the house and beat her with it. Of course, being beaten with a severed stuffed arm by a six-year old probably doesn’t make much difference to a dog (or anyone). I quickly forgave Belle of course, because I can probably count her and E.T. as the two loves of my life as a child. Unlike many of my other toys destroyed by Belle, (I’m thinking of you poor Kermit the Frog doll) giving up E.T. was never an option. I have hazy memories of trying to sew the arm back on for a while but eventually I just took care to sew up the hole where his arm used to be. I certainly didn’t love him any less and I felt an affinity for limbless children everywhere when the Easter Seals envelope would come in the mail with stamps and (what seemed to me to be) dog tags for E.T. ( Read more )
