School's In

I went to an estate sale this morning.  I was about number 110 in line (I'm not kidding).  Fortunately (or unfortunately) they were letting a lot of people in the house.  I waited about 15 minutes before I got in.  I was there for a couple items I saw in the online ad.  This:

and this:

No, not naked Barbie snuggling up to the Six Million Dollar man.  The Fisher Price school.

I received a Fisher Price school for Christmas 1972 when I was in kindergarten.  I recall playing with it on Christmas Eve and interrupting a game of Crossfire two of my brothers were playing by setting the merry go-round from the playground set in the middle of the playing field.  They were not pleased.  After the Christmas holiday, I took it to school for Show 'n Tell.  My mother taped the bell so it wouldn't ring.  I vividly recall carrying it while walking down the bus aisle and the other kids on the bus commenting on it.  Like a lot of Christmas gifts, it eventually lost its charm and sat in our basement for several years before my mother sold it a garage sale.

But back to the present day and the sale.  I saw the lamp leave while I was still standing in the misty rain outside. I kept watching for the school, but never saw it leave, although some people were leaving with boxes, so I couldn't tell for sure.

I finally made it inside the house.  It was packed with little room to move.  I gave a quick look around and didn't see the school.  I headed for the basement, my usual mode of operation for estate sales.  There I found a vintage iron (the new ones burn out too quickly) and a few books, but still no school.  I headed back up stairs and found that it was almost impossible to get to the living room because of the line for the cash register winding through it.  But looking around the corner, I could see some toys on the ground.  Excusing my self, I serpentined into the room and there hiding under a table was the school.  Seeing it was marked at $10, I grabbed it.  I had mentally prepared myself for $20, so it was a no-brainer.  I looked inside and though I couldn't be sure it was complete, it was packed and I saw some of the key items.

After completing my perusal of the rest of the sale, I waited in line another 15 minutes.  At home I cleaned it up and gave it to my youngest daughter.  It's missing the teacher's desk and chair and a few letters, but is complete other than that.  The school is marked 1971.

Fisher Price's Little People production ceased in 1990 due to choking hazard concerns.  They reappeared in a much chunkier form in 1991.