1982
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Summer Camp
The children's department is covered with balloons and decorations. Jeff is painting a sign and Sam is struggling to blow up a balloon when Jodie walks in carrying party hats.
"As you can see," she says, "We're having a party. And you're invited too!" She looks over at Sam, "How are you doing with that last balloon?"
"Just fine Jodie," wheezes Sam, "Just fine!"
Jodie admires the sign Jeff is painting. It says "Have Fun Muffy." Jeff has drawn some trees, a tent, a cabin and a lake, too, because Muffy is going away to summer camp. This is a going away party for her.
Sam calls excitedly that he has finally finished blowing up the last balloon! But in the midst of his celebration he accidentally lets go of it and the air rushes out as it flies away. Jodie says that's O.K., they've got a lot of balloons already, and it looks like they're ready to have a party.
"Well, let's have a party then!" says Jeff and the music begins. "Let's have a party, let's have a some fun, let's have a party, invite everyone!" they sing, as they dance around the children's department.
But Muffy isn't happy as she listens to the singing from her mousehole. "Look at them out there, feeling glad, while Muffy's in here feeling sad. Laughing and having such fun. All I wanna do is run. Run under the bed and turn out the lamp. 'Cause I don't wanna go to summer camp!"
Sam knocks on the door to get Muffy to come to her party, but she refuses. "I belong right here and here I will stay. I won't go to camp, I won't go away!"
Back in the children's department, Muffy's friends are confused. She was so excited about going before, now, all of a sudden, she doesn't want to. Jeff suggests that maybe she's scared of doing something new, so Sam says maybe they can show her how much fun summer camp will be. But how?
Jeff and Jodie pace back and forth thinking, but it's Sam who gets anidea. He whispers it to Jeff and Jodie. "I hope this works!" says Jeff.
Meanwhile, TXL shows us two suitcases. One is tiny, and one is HUGE. Which one will hold more clothes? She asks. Of course the huge one will hold more clothes. "*If* she decides to go away!" TXL adds.
Next we hear a bugle call as Sam uses it to try to flush Muffy out of her hole. They've come to take her to a special place they know, but first, they blindfold her.
Muffy goes willingly. "I am very curious. This is so mysterious!"
They walk her into the basement and take off the blindfold. They've made a summer camp there! "Rocks" and "trees," and even shirts that Jodie has made with "Camp Rainbow" and a picture of a rainbow on the front, and their names on the back. As Jodie puts on Muffy's shirt, Muffy protests that she doesn't want to go. They tell her she doesn't have to go anywhere, she could see how much summer camp is right here in the store and then she'd want to go. "Right?" they ask.
"Wrong! So long!" Muffy says, on her way out. Jodie asks her to stay and be a good sport. She shows her a map Jeff has drawn of her summer camp.
"You forgot to drawn the big black bear who'll cross the path and give me a scare!"
"Oh, Muffy, come on! There's no bears at your summer camp!" They've even practiced a song to sing to her about camping. Muffy is impressed and stays to listen to them sing the camping song: "Hi ho fiddle dee-dee, a camping life for me!"
It seems the mime lady is at a real summer camp. We see her all wrapped up in her sleeping bag sound asleep, as the alarm clock rings. TXL tells her to hurry or she'll be late for breakfast, but she can't get out of her sleeping bag because the zipper is stuck. How will she get to breakfast?
Undaunted, the mime picks up the sides of her sleeping bag and hops away. "Well, that's one way to do it," says TXL.
Back in the basement Sam has brought down a rowboat and explains that Muffy can learn safe boating at summer camp. "Row, row, row your boat!" he sings.
"Go ahead and row, row, row. I still don't want to go!"
To encourage her, Sam tells her about a day he and Jodie paddled a canoe on the lake. Jodie remembers all right. "As I recall I did all the work!" Sam admits that's true, but they still had a lot of fun. Jodie agrees, nodding and smiling.
Now we flash back to that day. Sam is teaching Jodie how to paddle a canoe safely. They put on their life jackets. He explains that a canoe doesn't have a motor and needs to be moved with a paddle, and he holds one up.
"That is a ping pong paddle Sam!" Jodie says. Sam says he was just trying to see if she was paying attention, and then he pulls out a real canoe paddle. He hands it to Jodie and she practices using it. She does fine as a Sam coaches her. "Jodie, you're a born sailor!" he says, "now all we need is some water!" Now, in a wide shot, we can see that the canoe is in the middle of a grassy field.
Next we see it on the water, Sam singing "Yo He Ho" as Jodie paddles. She wonders why she has to do all the work. "Practice makes perfect, Jodie, practice makes perfect!" he answers and picks up a megaphone calls out, "Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!" then he laughs and begins singing "Yo He Ho" into the megaphone.
Back in the basement, Sam and Jodie have set up an obstacle course. You start by running through tires crawling through a barrel, pick up a hula hoop and spin it around your waist five times, go down a slide, jump over a wading pool full of water, and cross the finish line. The fastest wins, and Sam is going to time everyone.
Jodie goes first, and she runs the course in 19 seconds. Next Jeff tries it. "I've never done this game before but I'll try!" Jeff is doing very well, even faster than Jodie, but then when he reaches the bottom of the slide he falls over, splash! right into the wading pool. "Aw, Jodie!" he says, laughing.
Next the mime lady shows us a game we can play at camp or anywhere. She uses a bright light to make shadows on the wall with her hands. She makes one that looks something like a horse and we guess what it is.
Now, Jeff, Jodie, Sam and Muffy are sitting around a pretend campfire. Sam says when he was a boy at camp this was the part he liked best. Jodie agrees. After a busy day she also enjoyed sitting around the campfire singing songs and telling stories.
Jeff asks if they can roast marshmallows, too, and Jodie says they could if they had a real fire, but since they're inside they can only have a pretend fire. "Just because it's a pretend campfire doesn't mean we can't have real marshmallows." says Sam, handing over a bagful. "We can eat them without cooking them." He has even brought a piece of Swiss cheese for Muffy.
"I love Swiss cheese in my tummy." Muffy says, "Why even the holes are very yummy!"
Jeff asks if they can sing songs too, so Jodie suggests that they all sing their favorite song.
Jeff sings, "Hocus Pocus Alamagocus" while Muffy sings "Cheese Please," and Sam sings "Yo He Ho" until Jodie hushes them all. It seems they all have a different favorite song, so she suggests they sing "Wave Your Hands" since they all know it. And we can sing along, too. So Jeff sings the main part and the rest of us follow his movements and sing in response.
They all enjoy themselves, but when the song is over, Muffy leaves. Her friends think maybe this pretend camp hasn't worked too well. Jeff decides to go see if he can find her.
The mime lady is still making shadows. This time, with a few clues, we can see that she's making the shadow of a cow.
Jeff is up in the still decorated children's department looking for Muffy, but he can't find her. He's about to leave when he hears someone crying in the background. He follows the sound and finds Muffy crying.
"Muffy what's the matter? Are you really so upset about going off to summer camp? If it bothers you that much no one is going to force you to go, we just thought that summer camp would be something that you might enjoy doing. I guess from the way you've been acting all night, you don't like anything at all about summer camp."
Muffy explains that she was only pretending to be that way. And that she really does want to go. "If you only knew how much I want to!"
Why doesn't she just go, then? Jeff asks. She explains that she afraid. But not of bears, mosquitoes or of being homesick.
"I'm afraid to go away, and that is why I have to stay. If I go away at the break of day, you and Jodie, even Sam, you'll all forget who I am, you'll find a mouse with a cuter face, and she'll move right in and take my place!"
Jeff assures her that they'll never forget her. "You're our own special friend and we love you!" No one can take her place.
So Jeff sings, "There's nobody, quite like you, Muffy, nobody does the things you do, there's nobody quite like you, Muffy, nobody quite like you." as he sings, we see shots of Muffy flying in a toy plane, bathing, trying to get out her front, door, dancing -- just being Muffy.
"Where would we be, if we didn't have you? Our days would be empty, the nighttime too, without you there'd be no sun in Sunday, all of our rainbows would be pale and gray . . ." Jeff sings.
Muffy thinks maybe he's right. "From all he's said, I have to agree. Where would they be without little me?" And then they sing together. Muffy sings, "Nobody quite like me, Muffy!" as Jeff sings, "Nobody quite like you."
Muffy feels much better now. "With a fee fie foe fum, Camp Rainbow, here I come!" she says, and then rushes off.
A moment later, the four of them are in the children's department, laughing and dancing to music. Sam explains that after her little talk with Jeff, Muffy decided that she can go away after all. "I guess Muffy just needed to know how special she is and how much we'll miss her when she's away, and we will miss her. I can understand that. I guess we all need to know we're special. Come on, let's join the party!"
Jodie dances over to dance with Sam, and soon everyone is dancing away and having a great time at Muffy's going away party.
Quizzes:
- After seeing a real sailboat, we see Muffy's toy bathtub sailboat. What shape is the sail? A triangle, a circle or a square?
- A happy camper has just done something he shouldn't have. What is it? (He has thrown a soda can on the ground).
Nursery Rhyme:
Notes:
- Sam's calling "Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!" into a megaphone while Jodie paddles the canoe is in imitation of rowing competitions. In order for all the rowers to be stroking in unison, one member of the team sits in the front and calls out, "Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!" so all the team members will keep the rhythm.
- "Wave Your Hands," was used before in 1981's Hands, and later in 1985's Live on Stage. "Hi ho fiddle-dee dee," the camping song, was from Camping from 1981. Also, the shadow game the mime plays here was also featured in Hands. That time Sam was playing it in the children's department.
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