Stanley: Origins

As Debra mentioned in her last post, the Dan Norris Family now has custody of Stanley. I am Dan's wife, Beth, and this is the story of our stormy relationship with Stanley....

After every conference, Dan presents me with his spoils: t-shirts, backpacks, thumb drives…. I still use the bag he brought home from Open World in 2005; it stores all my knitting needs. So I clearly remember the day he showed me his Oracle Ace vest. He began by showing me the front of the vest, to which I said, “Oh, that’s not as bad as you made it sound.” Then he turned it around. “You can’t wear that,” I told him. I was certain it signified membership in a street gang. So we looked at it for awhile, trying to determine whether we could remove the appliquéd spade without damaging the otherwise nice vest. Alas, it was not to be.

Dan placed the vest back into its plastic wrapping. I hung it in the far back of the foyer closet since I refused to give it to a shelter where some poor person could meet their demise simply for wearing it. And that is where it stayed, untouched, front to back with first our spring jackets and then our winter coats until Dan took the vest to Denmark for what was supposed to be its execution.

But instead of destruction, the vest took on a new life and asserted its identity as Stanley. Once I became aware of Stanley as an adventurer with his own personality, I felt bad about the Potteresque conditions in which he lived for his first several months. We shoved him aside! He lived in a closet and was hidden from guests! Now I am happy to report that Stanley has forgiven us, although it took a family trip to Disney World to fully chase his gloomies away.

As you can see, Stanley met all his favorite Disney characters. He had a particular affinity for Goofy, who, you may notice, wears a black vest. Stanley did run into a bit of trouble when he made some wise cracks about Donald Duck, but he redeemed himself when he rescued the children from Bruce the Shark. All in all, Stanley appears to be happy to be back with the Norris clan, especially now that he gets to sleep in his very own room.