1981
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Hands
Jodie is trying to set up a display but is awkward and clumsy because one of her hands is wrapped in tape and in a sling. Jeff comes along to help her and asks, "What happened to your hand?" Jodie explains that it's only a mild sprain from a fall while roller skating. She has to wear the bandage until work is over. She's worried about setting up the displays for a store wide glove sale with a hurt hand but Jeff says, "We'll all help you!"
Jodie tells Jeff that not being able to use one hand has made her realize how many things we use our hands for.
"Like what?" Jeff asks, scratching his ear.
"Like scratching your ear for one!" Jodie laughs. Then she sings about all the things your hands can do and Jeff joins her, singing "A Hand is Grand!"
Later, there are some very oddly dressed mannequins in the children's department. Jeff has been trying to put the gloves on the mannequins, but he's had a little trouble. A hockey glove sits on a little girl's head. A winter glove is stuck under a hockey player's helmet, a little boy is wearing a girl's lace glove. Jeff realizes he has made mistakes and asks us to shout "Yes!" when he holds the right glove in front of the right mannequin. Soon he has put the hockey glove on the hockey player, the winter glove on the warmly dressed little boy, and the lace glove on the little girl.
Muffy comes to ask Jodie how her hand is and finds Jodie searching for soap, water, and a towel to wash her hand to set up a white glove display. Muffy suggests that she play a game, but Jodie is reluctant, saying she has to continue her search. Muffy suggests she can find it after just one short game, so Jodie agrees.
Muffy has Jodie close her eyes and then directs her hand towards some objects on the counter. Jodie has to guess what she is touching. The first thing she touches is soap, the next is water, and the next is a fluffy towel. Jodie realizes why she couldn't find soap and water and a towel before.
"Now you see, I'm not so mean," Muffy explains, "you found the soap and your hands are clean!" In playing the game, Jodie has washed her hand!
"That Muffy," Jodie says, "she's not your average mouse."
Down in the computer room, Sam is using his hand to write a secret message on TXL's screen. He types HELLU, but TXL corrects him and he replaces the U with an O. Now it's says: HELLO.
Next Sam decides to check on Jodie's jewelry display and finds it is all done. He checks all of the displays in hardware, housewares, and sports, and finds that they're all done.
Up in the children's department again, and Jeff is admiring a colorful painting. Jodie tells him that it's a finger painting by a new artist. Jeff doesn't know anything about finger painting, so Jodie shows him Sam's last visit to a friend's classroom. "You know the artist really well!" Jodie adds.
Next we see Sam visiting a group of kids and their teacher named Mary, and we watch them fingerpaint. Then Mary gives Sam the chance to make his own fingerpainting. This is the very painting Jeff has been admiring. "Sam's really talented!" Jeff says afterwards, looking at the painting again.
Meanwhile in the computer room Sam and Muffy are working on more artwork. Sam traces Muffy's hand several times onto a piece of paper and when we see the tracing, we see they are traced in the shape of a daisy.
Jeff is examining his hands and exclaims "Hands are really amazing!" He invites us to imitate his hand movements, singing, "Wave your hands, wave your hands! Wave your hands, wave your hands, if you're tired of sitting still and no one understands, all you've got to do to move is wave your hands!"
TXL is reciting a rhyme while the mime lady does the hand movements, "Here is the church and here is the steeple, open the door and see all the people. Stand them up straight like ladies and men, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10." TXL invites us to try the hand movements with the mime lady.
Now Jeff is setting up a puppet show for Jodie's hand display. Sam suggests another thing she might use, a "shadow game thing". He turns out the overhead lights and shines a flashlight on a poster and uses his hands to make shadow shapes. First he makes his hand shadow look like a rabbit, and then like a bird. Jeff likes the idea but doesn't think it can be used in a display because all the lights would have to be turned off and people couldn't see where they were going. Just then Sam's flashlight goes out so Sam goes to turn on the light. On the way there, he trips on something he can't see. Jodie comes in, turns on the light, notices Sam on the floor and asks if he needs a hand. Sam says yes so Jodie hands him a mannequin hand.
Next the puppet show. The gang does "Sleeping Beauty". Sam's voice is used for good fairy and the bad fairy, Muffy's voice for the queen and the princess, and Jeff's voice for the king and the prince. Jodie narrates the story. At the end of the story when the townspeople are cheering, Jeff has little finger puppets on all ten fingers and waves them around to denote people jumping up and down and cheering. Next Sam Muffy and Jeff pop their heads out from behind the puppet show and we see the puppets on their hands.
Now in the computer room again, Sam is eating a grapefruit. He is saving an orange for Muffy but she can't be found so he does a trick with it instead. He takes the hollow grapefruit peel and sticks in under a handkerchief, when he removes the hanky, the grapefruit has become an orange!
Now Sam shows us how he did this. He had put Muffy's orange underneath the grapefruit peel, and when he lifted the hanky, he lifted the grapefruit, too, exposing the orange. He tries it again to show us how it works, but when he lifts the grapefruit, there is Muffy finishing what's left of the orange!
Later, Muffy and Jeff are admiring Jodie's display. Jeff reminds Jodie that work is almost over, so she can take the tape off her hands now. Jeff removes it and asks, "How does it feel?" Jodie says her hand is a bit stiff but otherwise it feels all right. After this experience, Jodie can really appreciate her hands more.
Now all four sing the praises of their hands in a final round of "A Hand is Grand!"
Quizzes:
- Here are four hand prints, Jeff's, Jodie's, Sam's, and Muffy's paw print. Which one is the biggest? Which one is the smallest?
- Which glove is a baseball glove?
- Where is the hidden hand in this picture of "Hand Mountain"?
Nursery Rhyme:
- Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
Notes:
- The gang sings "Wave Your Hands" again in 1982's Summer Camp and 1985's Live on Stage.
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