Just before Memorial Day, Eva Wall, a third grader at the Fiske School in Wellesley, Massachusetts wrote to tell me that her class was working on a Flat Stanley project. If you are not familiar with Jeff Brown’s 1964 children’s classic, illustrated by Tomi Ungerer, check it out. Eva sent me a hand colored flat Stanley and my assignment—write an illustrated short story about Stanley’s visit to Washington.
Stanley and I wandered up and down the Mall looking for photo ops. At the White House a friendly security guard reminded me that sticking things through the fence was not allowed—after Stanley had already posed on the other side!
He really wanted to climb the Washington Monument but the restoration work forced him to settle for a view from a nearby tree limb.
We stopped at the National Archives, of course, and dropped in on the Archivist of the United States.
But the real excitement came on Memorial Day when Stanley got to ride on a float in the parade down Constitution Avenue.
And who should he meet along the route? George Washington, himself!
And last week Eva got to share Stanley’s adventures with her classmates. I heard that Stanley’s picture with George Washington is hanging on the bulletin board! Thanks, Eva!