Forget Your Troubles and Get Slap-Happy with some fun stories!
In the late l990’s I was asked by the publisher of a very special small town newspaper in Eliot, Maine, called “The Curmudgeon,” to create a column that would give advice if people wrote in--and would still give advice if they didn’t. After some creative brainstorming about who would --and how to --dish out the advice, it was decided to use a style that reminded me of the “Mr. Wizard” TV shows of my youth. (Uh oh, I am dating myself!) In those old shows two kids would come to Mr. Wizard’s workshop to learn the workings of science. In our stories two beings called “Slap and Happy” would come to our Therapy office or the Curmudgeon office to learn how to deal with the complexities of relationships and life. As was Debby’s and our particular bent, we paid special attention to the ideas of the mind-body-spirit connection which at the time were starting to become less fringe and much more mainstream.
Ray and Bette (my husband and I) would end up helping Slap and Happy to understand life, and cope with what they told us when we asked them--“Wha’s up?” We would have an affectionate relationship with our little friends, kind of like a loving aunt and uncle. They would have no gender, and would constantly run into problems and dilemmas with their sidekick, “The Curmudgeon’s” mascot, an endearing butterfly named “Ms. Curmud.” Our paths would cross conveniently, by chance or by choice, whereupon Ray and I would be drawn into the problem and proceed to conduct the business of doling out advice, which would offer the general reader some tasty food for thought, or so we hoped.
Our intent in choosing the names of our little pals was probably obvious in its attempt to convey the fun we were having in the stories, as well as to imply the somewhat giddy, little bit naughty, and often over reactive nature of the genderless two. The idea of keeping gender secret, nonexistent in fact, was probably harder to figure out. What we intended was to present the human side of problems in a folksy but insightful way, without gender biases, and let people project their imaginations into the characters. In this way, we hoped the stories would belong to everyone and anyone in what we envisioned could become “personal” relationships with all of us, real or imaginary.
We also envisioned the characters to be ageless, yet with a kind of childlike innocence naivete and curiosity—and a tendency to jump to conclusions based on their emotions and first impressions—not unlike any of us have done at one stressful time or another. Ray and I and Debbie, on the other hand, “played” our wiser selves in the stories, representing the more patient, thoughtful parts of all of us. Our settings were mostly local to Maine, and Ms. Curmud almost always had a sweet role in the stories, especially if—no, when!-- the genderless twosome got themselves into a pickle or were in a quandary.
As time went on we added some other characters to help give some depth of personality to the “genderless ones,” and to provide more interest to the stories.
As it turned out nobody ever did write us, but over a couple of years we dished out quite a bit of monthly advice, pretending in a few stories that we “got a letter.” Initially we were disappointed that no one wrote, but in a short time we were having so much fun, it did not matter. When Debby shut down the printer in her spacious loft circa 2001, Ray and I had a portfolio of unique stories that would be great to read to children, and would have something to say to adults as well.
This is the first reprinting of any “Slap and Happy” stories in a decade. Enjoy!
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