I thought I’d written about Pee-Wee and Chairy somewhere but it is not coming up on a search here or on another blog.

The backstory is simple. I loved Pee-wee’s Playhouse in the late 1980s and early 1990s and couldn’t wait to share it with my future children. The colorful set and wacky characters were perfect for my slightly off-kilter sense of humor. So one Christmas my mom presented me with a talking Pee-wee Herman doll and a Chairy puppet.

I came across them a couple of months ago when we had to clear out the storage area of our attic to prepare for a roof replacement. They always bring me joy — and a little sadness too. The joy is remembering the fun times I had watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse; the sadness is because I never got to share the program with my kids. Paul Rubens was cancelled (before that was even a term) the day my first child was born after being arrested for masturbating in a movie theater (which was showing porn for goodness sake). The reruns of Pee-wee’s Playhouse were taken off the air a few days after Clare was born.

While Rubens has made a comeback of sorts, it’s not the same. I suppose Pee-wee and Chairy will go back into storage — there’s no way I am giving them away — but for now they’ll sit on the roof of the dollhouse in front of the window in the attic.