Day #2–Write how you imagine something may have been invented.

By me (Alison)

In 1935, in New York City, there was a little girl who was 2 years old. Her name was Meredith. She was very cute, with dark curls and big brown eyes. She was also a very stubborn little girl, and I am afraid her father spoiled her excessively. He was the CEO of a toy factory in NYC and a very busy man. However, he tried to spend some of his days off with his 2-year-old daughter. He had been a bachelor for many years and was still surprised to find himself father to such a remarkably beautiful little human, and even more surprising to him was the fact of her strong little mind, all her own.

One of his off days, he decided to take his daughter to the New York City Zoo. They had a delightful time walking about laughing at monkeys and feeding camels. He carried her on his shoulders, as she refused any other mode of transportation. When they got to the hippo cage, though, she demanded to be “down”. He set her down, and she pressed her nose against the glass and stared in awestruck wonder. She did not talk or take her eyes off of them; she just stood there stock-still with her little thumb in her mouth.

Her father became slightly nervous after a few minutes and asked to move on to the penguins. Meredith ignored him. He pleadingly mentioned the lions. Meredith turned and looked at him, “Me get a hippo,” she said.

“No, darling,” her father said nervously. “Hippos are not good pets for little girls.”

“Me get a HIPPO!” she said.

“No, come, dear, let’s go see the tigers.”

“ME GET A HIPPO!” Meredith cried, so loudly that a zoo-keeper walking by turned and stared in amazement.

“Certainly, certainly, Daddy will get Meredith a hippo. Meredith can have anything she wants!”

And then Meredith agreed to sit on Daddy’s shoulders and go see the penguins, but only the nice ones.

Because Meredith’s Dad believed in keeping his word, even though he lacked somewhat in backbone, he set about to pull strings, in whatever way it is that CEOs pull strings. Shortly thereafter, the NYC Toy Company produced its first stuffed hippopotamus. Meredith named it Happy and carried it with her wherever she went for the next 6 years.

And that, my friends, is how stuffed hippos were invented. That was the first stuffed hippo created in all America, but, thankfully for modern girls like me, it was not the last!