Re-Imagined Memory with the Friendly Giant

“Look up. Look w-a-a-a-a-y up and I’ll call Rusty.”

From his book bag on the wall Rusty Rooster popped out and shook his head.

“Hello Friendly, can I call Jerome?”

“You certainly can, Rusty. Then you can both look up. What do you see?”

Rusty Rooster called Jerome the Giraffe who lived outside the Friendly Giant's castle. Jerome stuck his big head on his long neck into the castle’s window.

“Well, I see tree tops, a big blue sky and some puffy clouds. Jerome, can you touch them with your nose? I’ll bet Friendly could reach up and touch them with his big hand.”

The Friendly Giant laughed his gentle laugh. “No, but can you guess what the tree tops, the big blue sky and the puffy clouds mean?’

Rusty Rooster thought and thought, Jerome Giraffe looked wa-a-a-a-y up again. In his big Giraffe voice he said. “One of those clouds looks like a dolphin’s nose. And those trees look like they almost want to burst. But I don’t know what that means.”

Rusty's scratchy voice piped up. “I think it might mean it’s springtime and that we won’t see snow again for awhile.”

The Friendly Giant laughed his gentle laugh again. “You’re both right. Now lets have a little music. He picked up his flute and tootled his gentle music.

“One is always at home in one’s past….”

Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory

*This was my imagined conversation in the Friendly Giant’s castle. When I took this photo of the sky this afternoon, I heard his voice “Look up. Look w-a-a-a-a-y up” So I just took my imagination spun out from there.

From Wikipedia:  ‘The Friendly Giant was a children’s television program that aired on CBC Television from September 39, 1958 through to March 1985.’ A 15 minute program, it was a favourite of mine.

Friendly Giant : Bob Homme (March 08, 1919 - May 02, 2000)

Puppets Rusty Rooster and Jerome Giraffe: 

manipulated and voiced by Rod Coneybeare (March 31, 1930 - September 05, 2019)