The Silly Story of Argeorqui

 Oh hi kid,

I just had a meeting cancelled so I thought I’d take a few minutes to pound out a little letter to you.

Not a whole lot has happened since I wrote Sunday. I did meet Artie for lunch and showed him a couple of logo ideas I did for him. He seemed happy, We’ll see what his business partners have to say.

Your brother Joe just got home, he’ll be going to work soon. He’s turned into a busy independent kid. That really struck me a couple of times recently. The first time was when I was following him and Ben on the way to the game. He’s really shot up recently and while he’s not even with Ben in height, he’s really catching up. Then the other night he told my not to tuck him in because all I do is put Argeorqui in his face. Wow, that one stung. I’ve mostly used Argeorqui to play with and bug you guys. I imagine I do baby Joe maybe more than I do you guys, but man! And worse? He’s right.

This minor event got me to wondering why Argeorqui even has become such a big part of my personality. I’m only half joking about my fear of reverting to Argeorqui language when I succumb to old age. I think the reason is based on that same nostalgia that I get at the start of a football game. Let me explain.

I grew up in a remarkably happy home. I had dotting parents, kind and close siblings, tons of freedom, and the Gospel. But this isn’t really about that. I also think that personality wise, I’ve alway been interested in items that represent things that represent ideas or even real things. To put it another way, I love models, RCs, woodworking, etc. and even my profession of Graphic Design/Creative direction because I can take ideas out of my head and make some tangible representation of them to she with others and let them experience them. I think that was part of me since I was a kid.

I remember having stuffed animals as toys, well, since I have memories. The first one was a skinny panda bear named, you guessed it, Ted. I have pictures of him and he was well loved and worn out. Then my little sister, your Auntie Selena, started to collect stuffed animals. She really loved them and I love animating them with voices, mannerisms, and even personalities and we’d play with them for hours. 

Your aunt had two toys that we especially loved. One was a short and stubby panda bear. He almost had the exact same pose as a cinnamon bear and he was very squishy. The other one was a gray animal named Harold. His name was Harold because he was very fuzzy, or harry. He had a big head that we’d love to use to pound each other on the head with. Somehow it was Harold that developed the aversion to being called a cat and referred to himself as being a monster.

(This letter’s getting pretty dumb, sorry)

My mom used to shop at ZCMI, this is the church department store downtown. In those days, everything was in downtown Salt Lake City, and ZCMI was really the center of it all. My favorite part of the store was the basement level. There was a lunch counter down there, a bakery, a grocery store section, and my favorite part, the toy department. I’ve always loved the toy departments, at least in those days because they were so much better than now. They had all the normal toys plus all the hobby stuff I liked. I think I still like them today, but now they’re in the form of hobby shops, tool shops, gun shops, Home Depot, etc. In those days, it was normal to let two little kids loose in a store so me and Selena went to go check it out while my mom did her shopping. She loved stuffed toys sho she went straight to that area in the toy department. That’s where she saw Argeorqui, Harolds twin. She got so excited. We had been afraid that Harolds head was going to fall off from all the time we would whack each other with him, so this toy was really just considered a replacement. My little sis was the baby of the family, and so much like Joe and mom, my mom could never say no to her. So Argeorqui came home with us.

I remember we couldn’t decide on a name for him. So mom had this idea that she should name them after my brother Art; myself George and our dog Don Quixote. We thought it sounded silly so it stuck.

For some reason the little persona that we came up with him also really stuck. The voice that Selena made up for Harold couldn’t say his Rs. So by contrast, Argeorqui said everything with Rs. We ended up calling it the ARR language. We played with him a lot, but naturally, my little sis grew out of him and I didn’t (and still haven’t, as you know).

About the time she grew out of him your cousin Cecily and your Aunt Patti moved in with us. So your cousin Cecily and I have been playing with Argeorqui since she was born, literally. As those kids grew up they were over a lot. They were much more like my practice kids than just my nieces and nephew. We have always been really close. When they would come over on Sunday’s we’d play every level of Mario Cart on Nintendo 64 and play with Argeorqui. That lasted up until I met your mom. I remember when I introduced your mom to the family and told them we were getting married the kids cried because they thought those fun Sundays were going to come to an end. And in a way, they were right.

I think Argeorqui was left at grandma and grandpa’s house after I move out, and we’d still play when we were together. But then Cecily was going to need her first brain surgery because of her disease. She was really scared and I wanted to do something to comfort her. So I put a bandaid on Argeorqui’s head and left him with her as a comfort. I actually think he did his job because when we went to visit her after the surgery she had him there snuggling with him in her hospital bed. 

Cecily had him for several years. She used to teach nursing students at LDS Business College (now Ensign College) and she would use Argeorqui to show them how to do simple procedures on babies. She told me that using that little stuffed toy really put those students at ease and made it much easier to show them how to do the procedure and to be gentle at the same time. So Argeorqui has actually had a career in the medical field.

When we came home for Cecily and Aaron’s wedding is when Argeorqui came back to live with me. That was just before we came home from Texas. I’m not sure why he came back to my personality so strongly at that point, but it was fun to play with him with you guys.

So now that Joe’s too old for him I guess it’s time for that little toy to go back into hiatus. I often wonder if there’s something wrong with me mentally or if I’m just childish in liking him and playing with him. There probably is. But in my mind, kinda’ like the football and basketball games up at the U, He’s a little object that has been part of every really joyful part of my life and brings me a lot of nostalgia. Some cultures call an object like that a totem, and they’re considered sacred. I would not say that he is sacred to me, but I do think he does represent a common item that connects me to the people I love the most in this world.

Anyway, that’s my story of Argeorqui. I’m a fully grown 56 yer old man and I make this admission openly without any embarrassment.

LYITY

Pops