The tale of Mr. Potato Head

This post has been composed and posted at the request of my dear friend Jackie. Jackie the guilty one is seen to the left posing with the one and only Mr. Potato Head.

Ok, truth be told I did trigger the trip down memory lane - to elicit a much needed smile. However, Jackie did support this trip down memory lane - because, well, heck everyone needs a laugh. Truth be told, I support the telling of such stories because it emphasizes that projects like the elephant are not one time adventures, oh no - such goofiness is a regular part of my existence. Now does that make me more or less crazy? Eh, what does it really matter. I have fun and it does not take much to amuse me. If I get really ambitious I might share the story of Henry the lobster on this blog. I'm sure Chiara would appreciate that trip down memory lane. Ok, yeah, maybe I am a wee bit crazy. Isn't there paperwork around to support that theory?

A little background information for this story is probably necessary. While a student at Loras College I was also employed as an RA (that's resident assistant) and eventually a CA (that's a community advisor, the same thing as an RA except that older students did not like the stigma of having an RA.) At the time of this adventure I was a CA in the Visitation Complex. My co-CA's were Jackie and Che and our supervisor was Ryan. (Our names are in the picture to the left - the sign was outside of our Viz Office). As residence life staff members we were asked to plan a staff development activity.

Being a highly evolved staff with years of RA experience amongst ourselves we decided to recreate the Mr. Potato Head game on our non-existent budget. The parallel between Mr. Potato Head and life as an RA would be complete as we would take the opportunity to explain the Mr. Potato Head is only complete when he has all of his parts; likewise an RA is complete only when he or she incorporates all aspects of his or her life - that no component is neglected. (On a side note, I seem to recall a Mr. Potato Head game that incorporated dice and pieces of the Tater Man; however, now that I google the game I can find nothing of the sort. Perhaps we were really creative and made the game up. In our version of the game each number on the dice let the player and a certain part of the potato man - eyes, ears, arms, feet, nose, mouth, hats. We were very creative folks afterall.)

In an effort to promote over very creative staff development activity, Jackie, Che and I took off on a photo spree with Mr. Potato Head around the Loras Campus. Mr. Potato Head found his way into many areas that the average DuHawk could not - thanks in part to our relationship with the security staffers. The photos were used in posters that magically found their way into key RA locations. The following pictures are only a sampling of the moments we captured that evening. (In the picture to the left, Mr. Potato Head finds his way into a tree in Rohlman Hall. I guess this event happened in late October after the haunted hall competition - Jacks, do you remember?)

Here Mr. Potato Head expresses his affection for a nun pumpkin. My, she has a cute dimple.

Oh no! Mr. Potato Head expresses extreme dismay as he believes his nun companion has met an ill-fated death (is there any other kind?) Perhaps the death was caused by her lack of attendance at the very important Viz CA led staff development session?
Shhh! Mr. Potato Head thinks those taters are his relatives. Shortly after this encounter we assured him that they were only fake spuds and not blood relatives.

Oh no! We were too late, he found his way to his relatives final resting place (well, almost final - I'm sure a dinner plate was in their future). It was too late, the sighting could not be prevented.

Clearly, if one saw a poster with such amusing graphical components they could not resist smiling. Yeah, crazy we were, but much fun we had.