The Mr. Curious Show

Congratulations to Cheryl Deal Meadows for remembering that Disney Dollars were the item you could buy for a dollar and yet still have a dollar when you when done (see yesterday's posting).  She also knew that Yensid was Disney backwards, but no one remembered who he was.  Yensid was the unspoken name of the chief sorcerer in The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of Fantasia.  I told you our questions were tough!  As for today's post, there is nothing curious about what Holly Harward, Jill Gilbreth, Allison Rees and Beth Brown are up to in the picture above.  This was normal in the youth ministries of Springfield Friends Meeting in the early '90's!  But we did find ways to amuse ourselves...

The scavenger hunts were not the only weird events we did at the mall.  On July 30, 1991, as a part of Youth Week, we took our video camera and headed out to film The Mr. Curious Show.  Our youth would wander the mall with my camera, going in stores and stopping "people on the street" to ask them questions, beginning each query with the phrase "Mr. Curious want to know."About 20 youth showed up for the afternoon event, including Beth, Jill, Holly, Stacy Gilbreth, Ben Moran, Steven McGrath, Danny McCorquodale, Jennifer Wood, Mary Mercadante and Natalie Whitaker.  The show got off to a rousing start when Ben showed told us what color underwear he had on (blue) and Beth shanked (yanked the umbros off of) Steven- who seemed totally bewildered at what had just happened to him.  At a bed store Stacy asked a sales clerk the strangest thing she had ever seen in the store, and the lady responded that she guessed it was people jumping up and down on the beds.  Jill asked if she could jump on the beds, the clerk said sure, and so Jill did.  In a jewelry store Mary asked a sales lady what kind of deodorant she was wearing.  It was Arrid Extra Dry.  In Victoria's Secret Steven posed the question, asking about the largest bra they sold.  It was 38DD.  We travelled to Spencer's Gifts, where Mandy asked a clerk about the oddest question she had ever been asked.  The lady responded with an answer that made everyone blush, and then gave details no one needed to know!  At the Record Bar, a music store, someone asked the clerk who was better- Mozart or Beethoven?  They answer was way too long and way too detailed to mention.  We also encountered a woman who was practicing riding escalators to get over her fear of them.  It was quite an afternoon.

The Mr. Curious Show was like many of the things we did as part of our youth programs- goofy and silly, but never quite up to the expectations I had when I thought of the idea.  But you know what?  It never really mattered.  When we were together, we always had fun, and we always spread the joy.  Looking back at the video, it is amazing to see the smiles on the faces of the unsuspecting people who faced our camera.  Plus we ate ice cream.  You know it can't be a bad day when you get Baskin-Robbins...