3V1109.02 Trip to Logo: typical stories (2/14-15/81)

Peggy, Robby and I went to MIT after story hour. Danny Moore came to the lab late in the afternoon and I tended Peggy while Robby played with him. What I recall of this time is that Peggy and I went to DSRE for my Spencer Foundation letter, spent a few minutes in Andy’s office till Robby was free (we played with tinker toys — that is, Peggy did, making ‘things’ for me while I looked over my letters and so forth. for a while, Peggy played at the typewriter in my office (The effect of this is shown most clearly in VT P160.)

Robby wanted much more to do other things than care for Peggy, for example read comic books or play adventure on the Apple. Later in the evening, I found him doing so and asked Peggy how she liked it. ‘It’s terrible.’ was her comment.

That evening, back at Mrs. Tack’s, as I was climbing into bed, Peggy asked if she could tell me the story about the Pig family. I agreed and she began. Once upon a time, there were three little pigs and they lived in a house in the woods. There was Mommy Pig and Daddy Pig and Robby Pig and Mimi Pig and Peggy Pig — oh, oh — Peggy Piggy, I never heard of that.’ (This last is an idiom for Peggy pointing out the outlandish quality of Peggy Piggy.) The next day, my most common remote sight was of the two playing near but separately in the Childrens Learning Laboratory. Several times I saw them lolling together in a couple bean bag chairs. Later Robby told me what they were doing — telling stories. this is typical of his :
‘Once upon a time, a little girl in a red coat was walking through the woods. A big wolf came up and wanted to eat her, so she pulled out her machine gun and cut him down. The end.’

He reported this variation on the Pig Family Story (the only one Peggy told ) :
Once upon a time, the Pig family lived in the woods. there was a Mommy and a Daddy Pig and three children : Flopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. It was bedtime. They went up and up and up and up and up and up and up the stairs and went to bed.

During the afternoon, we went to the Children’s Museum while Robby played with the computers at Logo. Peggy slid about on the giant’s telephone, drove the car, slid down the slide of the infant’s castle — found a ring tower toy and put it together directly. She most remembered — indeed asked to go upstairs to see — the traffic light. On the floor above, she found little to interest her in the computers, but did play with a set of mirror-enclosed, plastic chips. She did a quick tour of the doll houses. Following more play with the wonderful waterfull, toy trains, and the giant’s desk, we rode the subway back to Tech Square. Peggy and I both had a delightful time. A little more work, and we left for home. Peggy slept during the entire trip.

note : 2/15/81 Since then, Peggy has pestered Robby to tell her stories… he does so with even less detail than the sample above.

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