Richard L. Fluker

Remember the show-and-tell days from elementary school? You might have showed off just one prized possession. In my “book-show-and-tell,” based on The Cows Are Out, I display more than 60 mementos from my growing-up years on the family farm. As I make remarks or read a passage in which the item is mentioned, I draw attention to it by holding it up or pointing to it. The audience is engaged by the “old stuff,” the movement, and the demonstrations (like how to ring three longs and a short on a hand-crank telephone).

I have several versions of the program, each tailored to the age and interest of the audience:

The general public - This version is 40–45 minutes long and focuses on preserving family memories. As writer Wilfred Peterson said, “Memory is a form of immortality; those you remember never die. They continue to walk and talk with you; their influence is with you always.” But what happens when the one who remembers is no longer here? Quite simply, that influence is lost for future generations.

Everyone has a story to tell. It doesn’t have to be published in a book, as I did with mine, but anyone can jot down what he or she recalls about life events and loved ones. I encourage my audience to do that, then put those words into a folder or three-ring binder, make sure their family knows where it is, and ask them to pass it down. Inevitably, older members of the audience come up to me after the program to share memories of their earlier years. “Write it down,” I tell them.

Lower-grade school children - This 30-minute program focuses on the stories that show how I entertained myself as I kid while also learning what chores and just plain hard work were like. For me, that diversion was fishing and hunting, exploring, making up games, following my imagination while playing by myself most of the time. In closing, I ask the kids, “What will you look back on 55 or 60 years from now? Will you remember too many hours of watching TV, listening to music, playing computer games, spending time with Facebook, Youtube, and texting?” I challenge them: “Don’t let an electronic device become the only thing you turn to. Read a book, play with other kids, make things up, use your imagination. Pay attention to the world around you and be a part of it. And get outside when the weather is good.”

During one program, I sailed a paper airplane (“Recess at Petty’s Chapel School”) over the heads of about 160 third and fourth graders. They erupted, clapping and cheering for 10 or 15 seconds. After the program, I had to show more than a dozen kids and a couple of teachers how to make a paper airplane.

High school and college students - This presentation is all about perspective, of sharing a wide-angle look at life with those who are living primarily in the moment. One of the things history teaches us is that the only real constant in the world is change. While realizing that much of what I present will elicit smiles and chuckles, I use my keepsakes to show students how it was years ago in these areas: agriculture, communication, education, entertainment, games and play, household chores, transportation, and home utilities. Then I caution them not to think that the material objects they have and the way they live are the ultimate. Fifty or 60 years from now, many of those objects—if they still have them—will be obsolete, will be considered antiques. Finally, I remind the students to be ready for society itself—its customs, laws, practices, and people—to be different. It certainly is for me.

Customized programs - For retired teachers, I covered only the three stories related to my attending a two-room country school when I was a kid. Mementoes included marbles we played with at recess, my ball glove and a bat, a math test from sixth grade. During the Holiday Season, I read “Silent Night on the Farm” and a passage from “The Cows Are Out.” The cows are out? Yes, it was on a Christmas Eve during a family celebration that the cows made a most untimely escape from the pasture. One of my props is an R. C. Cola thermometer, which registered 13 degrees on that day!

Programs like these usually require only 15–20 minutes.

 

 

For a closer look at displays, click here.