Extra! Extra! Flat Stanley has made it home to Greene County after 11 years – and just in time for Christmas!
When I first heard the news from Souix Harbarger, it all came rushing back. Flat Stanley! The greatest geography-reading-writing project ever created for grade school kids – especially third graders! The story of Stanley Lambchop who was flattened by a bulletin board but found he liked it that way, was dreamed up by newspaper editor Jeff Brown of Manhattan in 1964 while reading bedtime stories to his own two boys. One asked his dad what would happen if that big bulletin board over there fell on his brother and a star was born. What ensued was decades of new stories as Flat Stanley traveled around the world, went to outer space and even did some time travelling. I’m betting most reading this have either mailed Flat Stanley or helped your kids put Flat Stanley in an envelope and send him off to a friend, just as Flat Stanley’s parents did to him in the first book.
For that you can thank third grade teacher Dale Hubert of London, Ontario, who decided in 1983 that mailing a hand-colored and carefully cut out Flat Stanley to a friend would be the lesson of a young lifetime for his students. Flat Stanley would go out to have his photograph taken with his new friend, hang out awhile, then be returned home with an envelope full of adventures that he had along the way.
The turnaround time is usually measured in weeks, maybe a month. But 11 years?
Well, it turns out the friend that Kolby Harbarger gave Flat Stanley to in 2011 was Jukka Salminen from Turku, Finland. And Jukka was planning to ride his bicycle around the world.
The Harbarger farm on State Rt. 21 near Khedive is the perfect place to meet a bicyclist from Finland, especially on a chilly spring day.
“We were cooking out when he pulled over and asked if he could fill his water jug and we invited him to eat with us,” Souix said. She remembers how they ate, laughed and worked on the language barriers over lunch, delighting in the adventure Jukka was describing to them.
Kolby remembers that he was eight and Flat Stanley was part of his home schooling things to do. Stanley was freshly colored and ready to go off on that adventure, so Jukka tucked him away, along with Kobey’s return address and peddled down the road.
And the years went by.
“I just forgot about him,” Kolby admitted.
When the big envelope arrived on December 1, “wouldn’t you know it, Stanley has made it back!” Souix posted on Facebook, adding, “I wasn’t holding out much hope for Stanley to return. But I have thought about the young man every now and then, wondering if he made it around the world.”
Well wonder no more.
“Dear Kolby and family Harbarger,
This little fellow had finally a time to return home. We had a long twisty and beautiful trip together through North and South America. You gave me a task to take photos of this little man for your son’s school project. Actually I did take a few photos but a few months after we met during the chilly spring afternoon in Carmichaels my journey came to a halt in Mexico and I returned home for 1.5 years. Then we both had to rest a little bit and I also wrote a book about my travels on five continents. Later we returned to South America and I finished my project of cycling through six continents. So unfortunately I was lazy and undetermined to finish the task in time. But hopefully it is never too late and this homecoming warms your hearts!”
A lot can happen in 11 years. Jukka writes that when he moved back to Finland after his tour of six continents, he wrote more books, did photography and renovated a 120-year-old log house using “natural materials and traditional techniques.” He lives there with girlfriend Helmi and her daughter Hilla, and “these days life seems to be taking more into a direction of a teacher and kind of a spiritual guide.” Still an avid cycler, “in January I will take on bicycle trip to Canary Islands. Somehow I feel that this upcoming adventure will be bit different, now that I am order, more experienced and in a different phase of life.” As for his adventures with Flat Stanley, “this little friend has been a reminder of your hospitality and the short time we got to share together on your lawn. I always remember your calm kindness and macaroni salad that you offered me. Those are the shared golden moment of a nomad’s life. I deeply thank you for that.”
Kolby, now 20, has graduated and is working for Clarks Nursery in Carmichaels doing landscaping while he contemplates his own next adventures in life.
And Flat Stanley? Is he ready to hang up is rather flat traveling shoes?
Souix laughed. “I think we’ll put Jukka’s letter and Stanley in a shadow box to keep everything, well, flat and safe and hang it on the wall. I just hope he doesn’t feel bad about missing the trip to the Canary Islands!”
Souix and her daughter are now friends with Jukka Salminen on Facebook and so am I. I can’t wait to see what he posts about the Canary Islands! If you ask to be his friend, be sure to tell him you know Flat Stanley.