A Bag of Hippos

Back when I was teaching at the University of Toronto, I used to give little pink hippos to my students as prizes: I had purchased a bag of 200 for reasons that aren’t worth going into, and this seemed like the best way to get rid of them.

I had a couple or three dozen left by the time I left that job, so I put them in a bag in my knapsack. Whenever I saw a kid being unhappy on the streetcar I asked their adult if it was OK to offer them a hippo. Sometimes the answer was “no”, but more often it was “Sure, thank you, anything.”

One day—I think it was the summer of 2011 but I’m not sure—there was a boy of four or five who was particularly unhappy and whose mother looked like she was having a particularly stressful day. I pulled out a hippo and said, “Would this help?” The kid’s eyes lit up and his mom said, “Sure, thank you.” As he started playing with it on the seat she thanked me again and said, “Of course, he’ll lose it as soon as I turn around.”

“No problem,” I said, and I handed her the bag with the remaining hippos and got off the streetcar without looking back.

Time to make another cup of tea. If you came in peace, be welcome.