Misfit Toy Stats
Name - Mr. Nuttenbaum
Type - Homemade
Age - Unknown
Origin - Handmade
Height - 2 3/4"
Demeanor - Ornery
Meet Mr. Nuttenbaum, number eleven of our misfit toys. Plain and simple, Mr. Nuttenbaum is an old cantankerous nut! He's as small as a peanut...oh wait, he is a peanut. Anyway, Mr. Nuttenbaum is a true Scrooge when it comes to Christmas. Not sure what his problem is, but maybe he spent too much time packed away and didn't get played with enough. You see, I found Mr. Nuttenbaum in a bag of old toy parts from the 1930s at an antique store. It looked like someone emptied a kids desk drawer from the depression era. It's possible that Mr. Nuttenbaum could be at least 75 years old. I'm speculating here, but he was probably made from a crafty parent as a simple stocking stuffer toy for a child. Maybe this crafty depression era parent made a bunch of these peanut people and now Mr. Nuttenbaum is the last of his kind. The only one to survive all these years. Amazing for a little fragile peanut with a wax hat and matching gloves and boots. Being unloved, unwanted, unplayed with and the last of your kind would make any toy's personality a bit on the sour side.
Ever since joining the rest of our misfit toys, Mr. Nuttenbaum has started to soften. No, not in a boiled peanut sort of way, but his attitude is now much better. If you look close you'll see he has a twinkle behind his ornery drawn on eyes. Of course he does his best to keep up the fake scrooge front, but everyone knows the nut in the shell is not as cold and dark as it was once before.
Look! Mr. Nuttenbaum seems to be enjoying his first Christmas since FDR was in office. Way to go Mr. Nuttenbaum!
Tomorrow is Christmas and you'll be meeting the last toy in our misfit toy group. Everyone have a happy Christmas Eve!
2 comments:
When I was in 8th grade, we were given peanuts and asked to decorate them and write a story about them. Thus was born Wilfred C. Peanut. Mr. Nuttenbaum could in fact be his long lost grandfather. I still have Wilfred in a box somewhere, resting in the matchbox bed I made for him. Someday when I'm gone, I would hope someone will give him a home as nice as you have for Mr. N. Excuse me, I have something in my eye.
Tom - Thanks for sharing your Wilfred C. Peanut memory. Long live Wilfred C. Peanut!!
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