This is a 1979 Fisher Price radio that used to play Teddy Bears Picnic; I had one when I was a little boy. I bought this one second hand and messed about with it. I removed some of the tines on the music box mechanism, filed down some of the points on the cylinder, then I added another music box mechanism (with tines and points removed, bent and stuff). When you play them both together you get weird, scary, tinkly, discordant music. It also still has elements of Teddy Bears Picnic, mixed with recognisable notes from When You Wish Upon a Star - the other music box mechanism.
...there was a little girl called Katie. On her eighth birthday, her kind Daddy gave her a chemistry set as a gift, little Katie loved the chemistry set. In fact, she loved it more than she loved her pet giraffe Dougie, so he was sent to Bristol Zoo to live with the other giraffes – where he quickly rose to be the most popular grazing animal and when he dies (some years later) a small brass plaque was put on the door to the giraffe enclosure). Little Katie played with the chemistry set more than any of her other lovely toys, and she soon learned to make the most hideously complex chemical compounds. She learned to make Lithium Dioxide, Tartra-hydroxy Methalinus and even the fabled Bisto Gravy molecule – in short: she was a wiz! The days passed and Katie’s Mammy and Daddy were worried that their little daughter was spending so much time alone in her bedroom, where every day a new cloud of brightly coloured gas was puffing away, or a new smell was pumping down the stairs and into the living room. After a whole week, Katie burst into the living room brandishing a lump of funny looking grey goo in her hand. “What’s that, poppet?” asked her Mum, looking perplexed, “It’s a Warbly Blap!” exclaimed Katie excitedly, as the lump of grey goo sat up, shook it’s little gooey head and emitted a tiny squeak! Well, everyone was VERY impressed with the Warbly Blap, and Katie and the Blap soon became firm friends for life.
The Smithfield family are the envy of their neighbours and friends. There are five offspring, all good-looking and ‘gifted’ in one way or another, and long-married parents who still send each other valentine cards. Susannah Smithfield, the mother, runs the household with faultless organisation. No medical appointment is ever missed, no dry-cleaning abandoned and there is never a gap in the supply of teabags, bread, or shampoo. Her system of automatic replacement even extends to the household pets. When one of the animals exhausts its natural span, she buys a new puppy or kitten a few days later. This is not a sign of heartlessness, it’s the opposite: a desire to fix everything, even sorrow. In years to come, she will look back on this time and wish that she had paused to notice what was happening to her eldest boy.
Please do not reproduce or sell my patterns, or items made from my patterns. Please contact me if you want to make things to sell for charity - and then I'll say yes!
