Silly Putty

D. Bowden
2005

I remember when Auntie Barbara gave me some Silly Putty when I was about three years old. I remember the red plastic "egg" it came in. When I would press it on funny pages of the newspaper, the image would adhere to the pinkish putty and I could make it stretch every which way to make "Nancy" or "Mickey" or "Charlie Brown" distort into all sorts of contortions. I was having so much fun with it, but my father was afraid I would get the gummy substance in the upholstery or on the floor or somewhere else. He took it from me and started tossing it in the air and laughing as I begged for him to give it back to me. On the last toss into the air, and "catch" he opened his hands to show me that the putty "disappeared"! "Make it come back, Daddy! Please!" He just smiled at me with surprised eyes and said "It's gone! It disappeared!" I don't know what he ever did with it, but I never got it back.