August 17, 2025 • 28 mins
Geraldine's happy pants today are dark yellow, the kind that make her think of a hot cheese toastie. Rebecca's are yellow too, a light yellow that makes her think of the taste of lemon meringue pie with its crumbly pastry and tangy sweet lemon filling. Yum!
Rebecca's happy pants pockets are bulging today! Both she and Geraldine have some very curious items in there - tune in to find out what!
This week you can learn about recycling, like about what happens to old tyres, and what yummy thing you can make leftover veges into. Plus, of course, you'll hear some happy tunes and a book reading.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:13):
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:30):
Good day. And welcome to Happy Pants, a show especially
for kids and especially for you. My name is Geraldine and.
S3 (00:38):
My name is Rebecca. And together, we're your happy pants
team for today.
S2 (00:45):
Are you wearing your happy pants today? We are today.
Mine are a dark yellow. This kind of yellow makes
me think of the taste of a hot cheese toastie.
Or yum.
S3 (00:58):
Yum yum. Mine are yellow to a light yellow. That
makes me think of the taste of lemon meringue pie. Crisp,
crumbly pastry. Tangy, sweet, lemony filling and crunchy meringue on top. Mm.
Double yum.
S2 (01:15):
My happy pants pockets seem to be bulging this morning.
S3 (01:19):
Yeah. Mine too. Well, you go first, Geraldine. It's going
to take me a while to get whatever this big
lump is out of my pocket.
S2 (01:28):
I'll give you a hand if you like.
S3 (01:30):
Oh, no. Please don't. You need both your hands. And
I've already have the usual two. Where would I attach
another one, anyway? A hand needs an arm to hold
on to, and both of my arms are already in use.
S2 (01:45):
Oh, very funny, Rebecca. I meant, would you like some assistance?
S3 (01:51):
Oh, okay. Some help. Right? Yes, please. If I hold
the pocket open while you pull whatever it is out.
S2 (02:03):
Like a cork from a bottle. Well, maybe not the cork.
S3 (02:08):
It's a big plastic bottle. And you're right. No cork.
S2 (02:14):
Anything else?
S3 (02:15):
Yep. Some ring pulls from Cooldrink cans.
S2 (02:20):
Well, you got the ring pulls. I got the cans.
Empty ones. Well, that's one pocket. Now this one. This
one has. Oh, it's an old rubber bike tyre.
S3 (02:33):
Geraldine. How do you describe someone who falls off his
bicycle and gets back on again?
S2 (02:41):
I couldn't guess. Tell me.
S3 (02:45):
Ah, he's been recycled. Oh. Now thinking caps on our pocket. Clues.
Tell us what we're supposed to talk about today. So far,
we have an empty plastic bottle, some ring pulls, empty
cans and a bike tyre. Any ideas?
S2 (03:07):
Well. I'm thinking. Actually, I'm thinking about your pretty new sweater.
I love the ducks on the front. Where did you
get it?
S3 (03:17):
Mm. Thank you. Well, to tell the truth, it's not new.
The yellow part is what is left over from my
favorite sweater. The sleeves were all raggedy and tattered, and
I unpicked the seams. Geraldine, and took them out. I
had dipped taco sauce all down the front, and the
(03:37):
stain wouldn't wash out. Fortunately, I had a brown sweater
that I didn't wear much, so I took the sleeves
out of that and swapped them over.
S2 (03:47):
Well, that was clever, Rebecca. I love the brown ducks
on the front, too.
S3 (03:53):
Well, I wanted six little ducks like the song. And
they cover up the taco stain and the brown matches
the sleeves. I really like my new jumper, even if
(05:29):
it is made from two old ones.
S2 (05:31):
Did you find a use for the rest of the
old brown one?
S3 (05:34):
There was quite a lot of brown left and some
bits of yellow too. My friend Melanie has just got
a new puppy, so I made what was left into
a doggy coat to keep him warm. Mel is really
into crafty things, and she gave me this little handbag
that she had just made. What do you think of it?
And what do you think it's made of?
S2 (05:57):
Well, it it looks as if it's made of metal
links all joined together. Each link is a ring, and
it has a flat metal bit that's folded over to
join it to the next ring. Oh, they look like
ring pools to me.
S3 (06:14):
Geraldine. That's right. Melanie makes all sorts of useful things
from ring pools. She showed me lampshades and bracelets and
bags like this one.
S2 (06:25):
Oh, fancy making useful things from ring pulls. Most people
just throw them away.
S3 (06:30):
I think I've worked out what we need to talk
about today. All the things in our pockets are things
people throw away, but they could be repurposed.
S2 (06:43):
You're right. Your sweater and that handbag were old things
remade and used for a new purpose.
S3 (06:52):
They were.
S2 (06:55):
Recycled.
S3 (06:59):
Big word alert. Our cycle means something which goes around.
Plastic bottles can be recycled. Park benches and tables are
often made out of them.
S2 (07:12):
Plastic bottles can be made into thread to anything from
clothing to carpets can be woven from thread, made from
plastic bottles, even swimwear, even new shoes.
S3 (07:26):
Rubber tires like the one in your pocket. Hmm. What
could that be used for?
S2 (07:31):
Well, tires have a lot of steel in them, so
that stripped out first. It's melted and used to make
things like steel beams for building houses. Some is used
to make car parts too. The rubber is crumbled, then
mixed with bitumen to make roads. Councils and schools use
a crumbed rubber mix to make a safe surface for kids.
S3 (07:55):
Playgrounds are. I've seen a tyre covered with warm padding
and it was used as a snuggly pet bed.
S2 (08:04):
When I was a kid, dad made a swing from
an old car tyre. He cut it in half, fitted
a piece of wood in to make a seat, fix,
change to the open ends and hung it from a
strong branch and it was perfect. I guess if we're
(09:40):
talking about repurposing things, my favorite repurposed food is bubble
and squeak.
S3 (09:48):
Haha. That's standard Sunday breakfast in our house. All the
leftovers in the fridge go into it. I'm pretty sure
mum cooks a bit extra of everything during the week,
so we have enough for bubble and squeak on Sunday.
It all gets chopped up and tipped into a hot
buttery pan with a few herbs. No one's late for
breakfast on a Sunday.
S2 (10:10):
Bubble and squeak has been around for about 200 years.
It probably gets its name from the sound it makes
when all those veggies are tipped into the sizzling hot pan.
S4 (12:20):
Happy Pants is a special radio show just for kids
like you and me.
S3 (12:25):
I like a nice cup of coffee with my bubble
and squeak. The only problem with that is what to
do with the left over coffee grounds. Then I heard
about how cafes get rid of all the kilos and
kilos they make in a day. Some bright spark found
that coffee grounds make very good fertilizer for the garden.
(12:46):
They help the soil and stopped compost from getting smelly
and repel insects and other harmful pests.
S2 (12:54):
Some mushrooms are grown in coffee grounds mixed with straw.
Mushrooms grown in this mix are very clean too.
S3 (13:02):
Whoa! Does your pet have fleas? Save your coffee grounds.
Pour boiling water over them and let them soak for
a while. Then strain off the water. Next time your
fur baby needs a bath, use the coffee. Water fleas
hate it. Result? No fleas.
S2 (13:20):
Who'd have thought coffee grounds could be recycled in so
many ways? I know my tomatoes like them.
S3 (13:27):
Well, Bush people are very inventive. They can make all
sorts of things from recycled stuff. In the early days,
people who lived away from the big towns often had
to rely on their own inventiveness to make things they needed.
The Bush band is one example. If a group of
country people wanted to have a dance night, they needed instruments.
(13:49):
There was usually a piano or an accordion around, but
for proper dancing, a drum is needed to keep the beat.
A nice loud drum could be made from a wooden
box with a tanned sheepskin stretched over the open end.
The drummer sat on a stool, held the box between
his knees and thumped with a wooden stick.
S2 (14:09):
Stig. My favorite bush band instrument is the tiddly. That
was a broomhandle with lots of metal crown tops from
beer bottles nailed to it. The tops were loose on
the nails, so when the broomstick was shaken or had
a stick run up and down it, it rattled. It
(14:31):
was called a boomps tiddly because it went boomps when
it was thumped on the floor and tiddly when it
was shaken.
S3 (14:39):
I think playing in a bush band would have been
even more fun than the actual dancing.
S2 (16:37):
I reckon you could make your own drum, or boomps
a tiddly and have your own bush band at home.
I wonder what other instruments you could be making out
of recycled stuff.
S3 (16:49):
Hmm. I'm thinking of other things. We used to recycle. Oh, yeah,
when I was young, and I grew out of my clothes.
They were passed on to my little sister.
S2 (16:59):
Well, toys are often recycled, sometimes for several generations. Children
grow up so their special toys are often packed away
until there are new children to enjoy them.
S3 (17:12):
I suppose. Rescue centres are a sort of recycling. They
try to find new homes for animals, which people have
loved but can no longer look after. Oh, that helps
the people who have had to give up their pets,
and the people who want to have a new pet
to love. It also helps the pets by finding them
a new home.
S2 (17:33):
Just think how frightened a pet that was used to
one home and people who loved it and cared for
it would feel if it was suddenly taken away from
the home and people it had always known. It would
probably be totally bewildered.
S3 (17:50):
Big word alert. Bewildered means unable to understand.
S2 (17:56):
People have been recycling for thousands of years in olden times.
Everything had to be made by hand, using whatever wood, bone,
stone or fibre that was around. Making tools and clothing
by hand from scratch takes time and a lot of
hard work. If something broke, it'd take a long time
(18:18):
to make another. So everything that could be mended was
mended or used for another purpose. Nothing was thrown away
if it could be used for something.
S3 (18:31):
These days, nearly everything is factory made and easily replaced.
If it isn't wanted anymore, just chuck it out. Verge
collections are for things which aren't wanted, but which someone
else might find useful.
S2 (18:47):
Our story today is about something useful that was put
out on the verge in case someone wanted to recycle it.
It had lots of uses in lots of different places,
and in the end it was truly recycled.
S3 (19:04):
Little Blue Chair by Carrie Fagan. Boo had a favorite chair.
It was little. It was blue. He liked to sit
on it while he ate his breakfast and his lunch
and his dinner. He carried it outside and sat among
the daffodils, looking at books. He made a tent around it.
(19:28):
He fell asleep on it. And then boo grew bigger.
He grew too big for the little blue chair, so
his mum put it at the end of the lawn.
She made a sign and hung it on the chair.
The sign said, please take me. A truck came rattling by.
(19:51):
It stopped. A man got out and put the chair
in the back of the truck. The man sold it
to a lady who ran a junk shop. It stayed
in the shop for a long time. One day a
woman came in. The chair will be perfect, she thought.
The woman put the chair by the window. On the
(20:13):
chair she put a pot with a little plant in it.
She watered the plant. It grew and grew and grew.
The plant grew into a tree. The woman dug a
big hole in her garden for it. She didn't need
the little blue chair anymore. So she put it at
(20:36):
the side of the road and hung a sign on it.
The sign said free to a good home. A boat's
captain strolled by on his way to the harbour. He
saw the chair. It will be perfect, he thought. And
he carried it on his shoulder on the boat. He
(20:56):
put it beside the captain's wheel. Now his daughter could
sit beside him while they sailed across the ocean. At
last the boat reached shore. The captain decided it was
time for them to stay in one place, so he
turned the boat into a snug little house. They didn't
(21:16):
need the little blue chair anymore, so the captain put
it on the beach with a sign, said, do you
need this? The chair stood on the beach for a
long time. One day a man and an elephant walked
along the beach. The man looked at the little blue chair.
(21:37):
It will be perfect, he thought. The man politely asked
the elephant to kneel down. He put the little blue
chair on the elephant's back. They walked along while the
man called out, elephant rides. Elephant rides. Children lined up
for a ride on the elephant. The elephant was very gentle.
(22:00):
After a few years, the man and the elephant decided
to retire. They didn't need the chair anymore, so the
man wrapped it up in brown paper, stuck a lot
of stamps on it, and put it in the mail
to his sister. His sister found the package on the doorstep.
She opened the package and saw the little blue chair. Oh,
(22:21):
it will be perfect, she thought. She put a bowl
of seeds on the chair. Then she used a rope
to raise the chair to the top of the tree.
From all around, birds appeared in the air. Little birds,
big birds, plane birds and fancy birds. They all perched
on the chair to eat the seeds. How lovely. Said
(22:44):
the sister. Some of the seeds fell to the ground.
They grew into a beautiful garden. Now the birds spent
all their time feeding in the garden. The sister didn't
need the little blue chair anymore, so she put the
chair out with a sign on it that said I
like to work. A few moments later, a carnival owner
(23:06):
came by and saw the chair. It will be perfect.
He thought the carnival had a big Ferris wheel. But
the Ferris wheel was missing one seat. The man installed
the little blue chair. Up, up it went. Round and
round it went. And the children screamed with pleasure. After
(23:28):
a few years, the motor on the Ferris wheel wore out.
So the carnival owner decided to dismantle it and use
all the pieces to build a copy of the Eiffel Tower.
The man didn't need the little blue chair anymore, so
he got an old can of paint and turned the
(23:49):
little blue chair red. Then he used it as a
prize in a contest. Whoever could throw a ring around
the milk bottle would win the chair. Many people tried.
At last, a boy threw the ring. It zipped through
the air and fell over the milk bottle. The winner,
(24:11):
the boy took the little chair home. He thought of
all kinds of things to use it for. He built
a go cart and used the chair as the driver's seat.
He wrote a play about a king and used the
chair as the king's throne. He got a bunch of
balloons and tied them to the chair. The boy wanted
the balloons to carry him into the sky. But before
(24:33):
he could sit down, the balloons lifted the chair away. Hey!
Come back, the boy called. But balloons don't listen to people.
The chair floated back over the ocean. It floated over
towns and cities and schools and playgrounds. The balloons began
(24:54):
to come down. The little chair landed in a front
garden right among the daffodils. A man came out of
the house. He looked at the chair the red paint
had chipped and he could see the blue underneath. Hmm.
You look familiar, said the man, whose name was boo.
(25:18):
Sure enough, it was the same boy who had loved
the chair a long time ago. Only now he was
a grown up. One leg had become wobbly, so the
man took it into the garage. He glued the chair's
wobbly leg. He gave it a new coat of blue paint.
Inside the house, the man's daughter, whose name was Belle,
(25:42):
lay on a rug looking at books. Here's a chair
for you, said her father. Belle carried the chair to
the corner. She put a pile of books beside it,
and also a glass of milk and a plate of cookies.
She sat on the chair. She smiled. This chair is perfect,
(26:03):
she said.
S2 (26:06):
That was a reading of Little Blue Chair, written by
Cary Fagan. The reader was Rebecca. That chair really was recycled.
It ended up right where it started. A full circle.
S3 (26:23):
Hmm. So what have we done today? We found out
about a lot of things that can be recycled. Who'd
have thought used coffee grounds could be so useful? I'm
never throwing mine away again.
S2 (26:36):
We had two big words to add to the big
words list. There was cycle, which means something which goes
around in a circle and bewildered, which means unable to understand.
S3 (26:49):
We also heard about how to make a snug pet
bed from an old tire and a swing to mustn't
forget the swing.
S2 (26:57):
If there was anything in today's program about which you
would like to know more, or you would just like
to say hello, you can find us at Radio Vision Australia.
So till we're.
S3 (27:12):
Recycled next week. I'm Geraldine and I'm Rebecca. Keep wearing
those happy pants.
S2 (27:20):
And we'll.
S3 (27:21):
Catch.
S2 (27:21):
You next time.
S5 (27:35):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area. We pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(27:58):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:30):
Good day. And welcome to Happy Pants, a show especially
for kids and especially for you. My name is Geraldine and.
S3 (00:38):
My name is Rebecca. And together, we're your happy pants
team for today.
S2 (00:45):
Are you wearing your happy pants today? We are today.
Mine are a dark yellow. This kind of yellow makes
me think of the taste of a hot cheese toastie.
Or yum.
S3 (00:58):
Yum yum. Mine are yellow to a light yellow. That
makes me think of the taste of lemon meringue pie. Crisp,
crumbly pastry. Tangy, sweet, lemony filling and crunchy meringue on top. Mm.
Double yum.
S2 (01:15):
My happy pants pockets seem to be bulging this morning.
S3 (01:19):
Yeah. Mine too. Well, you go first, Geraldine. It's going
to take me a while to get whatever this big
lump is out of my pocket.
S2 (01:28):
I'll give you a hand if you like.
S3 (01:30):
Oh, no. Please don't. You need both your hands. And
I've already have the usual two. Where would I attach
another one, anyway? A hand needs an arm to hold
on to, and both of my arms are already in use.
S2 (01:45):
Oh, very funny, Rebecca. I meant, would you like some assistance?
S3 (01:51):
Oh, okay. Some help. Right? Yes, please. If I hold
the pocket open while you pull whatever it is out.
S2 (02:03):
Like a cork from a bottle. Well, maybe not the cork.
S3 (02:08):
It's a big plastic bottle. And you're right. No cork.
S2 (02:14):
Anything else?
S3 (02:15):
Yep. Some ring pulls from Cooldrink cans.
S2 (02:20):
Well, you got the ring pulls. I got the cans.
Empty ones. Well, that's one pocket. Now this one. This
one has. Oh, it's an old rubber bike tyre.
S3 (02:33):
Geraldine. How do you describe someone who falls off his
bicycle and gets back on again?
S2 (02:41):
I couldn't guess. Tell me.
S3 (02:45):
Ah, he's been recycled. Oh. Now thinking caps on our pocket. Clues.
Tell us what we're supposed to talk about today. So far,
we have an empty plastic bottle, some ring pulls, empty
cans and a bike tyre. Any ideas?
S2 (03:07):
Well. I'm thinking. Actually, I'm thinking about your pretty new sweater.
I love the ducks on the front. Where did you
get it?
S3 (03:17):
Mm. Thank you. Well, to tell the truth, it's not new.
The yellow part is what is left over from my
favorite sweater. The sleeves were all raggedy and tattered, and
I unpicked the seams. Geraldine, and took them out. I
had dipped taco sauce all down the front, and the
(03:37):
stain wouldn't wash out. Fortunately, I had a brown sweater
that I didn't wear much, so I took the sleeves
out of that and swapped them over.
S2 (03:47):
Well, that was clever, Rebecca. I love the brown ducks
on the front, too.
S3 (03:53):
Well, I wanted six little ducks like the song. And
they cover up the taco stain and the brown matches
the sleeves. I really like my new jumper, even if
(05:29):
it is made from two old ones.
S2 (05:31):
Did you find a use for the rest of the
old brown one?
S3 (05:34):
There was quite a lot of brown left and some
bits of yellow too. My friend Melanie has just got
a new puppy, so I made what was left into
a doggy coat to keep him warm. Mel is really
into crafty things, and she gave me this little handbag
that she had just made. What do you think of it?
And what do you think it's made of?
S2 (05:57):
Well, it it looks as if it's made of metal
links all joined together. Each link is a ring, and
it has a flat metal bit that's folded over to
join it to the next ring. Oh, they look like
ring pools to me.
S3 (06:14):
Geraldine. That's right. Melanie makes all sorts of useful things
from ring pools. She showed me lampshades and bracelets and
bags like this one.
S2 (06:25):
Oh, fancy making useful things from ring pulls. Most people
just throw them away.
S3 (06:30):
I think I've worked out what we need to talk
about today. All the things in our pockets are things
people throw away, but they could be repurposed.
S2 (06:43):
You're right. Your sweater and that handbag were old things
remade and used for a new purpose.
S3 (06:52):
They were.
S2 (06:55):
Recycled.
S3 (06:59):
Big word alert. Our cycle means something which goes around.
Plastic bottles can be recycled. Park benches and tables are
often made out of them.
S2 (07:12):
Plastic bottles can be made into thread to anything from
clothing to carpets can be woven from thread, made from
plastic bottles, even swimwear, even new shoes.
S3 (07:26):
Rubber tires like the one in your pocket. Hmm. What
could that be used for?
S2 (07:31):
Well, tires have a lot of steel in them, so
that stripped out first. It's melted and used to make
things like steel beams for building houses. Some is used
to make car parts too. The rubber is crumbled, then
mixed with bitumen to make roads. Councils and schools use
a crumbed rubber mix to make a safe surface for kids.
S3 (07:55):
Playgrounds are. I've seen a tyre covered with warm padding
and it was used as a snuggly pet bed.
S2 (08:04):
When I was a kid, dad made a swing from
an old car tyre. He cut it in half, fitted
a piece of wood in to make a seat, fix,
change to the open ends and hung it from a
strong branch and it was perfect. I guess if we're
(09:40):
talking about repurposing things, my favorite repurposed food is bubble
and squeak.
S3 (09:48):
Haha. That's standard Sunday breakfast in our house. All the
leftovers in the fridge go into it. I'm pretty sure
mum cooks a bit extra of everything during the week,
so we have enough for bubble and squeak on Sunday.
It all gets chopped up and tipped into a hot
buttery pan with a few herbs. No one's late for
breakfast on a Sunday.
S2 (10:10):
Bubble and squeak has been around for about 200 years.
It probably gets its name from the sound it makes
when all those veggies are tipped into the sizzling hot pan.
S4 (12:20):
Happy Pants is a special radio show just for kids
like you and me.
S3 (12:25):
I like a nice cup of coffee with my bubble
and squeak. The only problem with that is what to
do with the left over coffee grounds. Then I heard
about how cafes get rid of all the kilos and
kilos they make in a day. Some bright spark found
that coffee grounds make very good fertilizer for the garden.
(12:46):
They help the soil and stopped compost from getting smelly
and repel insects and other harmful pests.
S2 (12:54):
Some mushrooms are grown in coffee grounds mixed with straw.
Mushrooms grown in this mix are very clean too.
S3 (13:02):
Whoa! Does your pet have fleas? Save your coffee grounds.
Pour boiling water over them and let them soak for
a while. Then strain off the water. Next time your
fur baby needs a bath, use the coffee. Water fleas
hate it. Result? No fleas.
S2 (13:20):
Who'd have thought coffee grounds could be recycled in so
many ways? I know my tomatoes like them.
S3 (13:27):
Well, Bush people are very inventive. They can make all
sorts of things from recycled stuff. In the early days,
people who lived away from the big towns often had
to rely on their own inventiveness to make things they needed.
The Bush band is one example. If a group of
country people wanted to have a dance night, they needed instruments.
(13:49):
There was usually a piano or an accordion around, but
for proper dancing, a drum is needed to keep the beat.
A nice loud drum could be made from a wooden
box with a tanned sheepskin stretched over the open end.
The drummer sat on a stool, held the box between
his knees and thumped with a wooden stick.
S2 (14:09):
Stig. My favorite bush band instrument is the tiddly. That
was a broomhandle with lots of metal crown tops from
beer bottles nailed to it. The tops were loose on
the nails, so when the broomstick was shaken or had
a stick run up and down it, it rattled. It
(14:31):
was called a boomps tiddly because it went boomps when
it was thumped on the floor and tiddly when it
was shaken.
S3 (14:39):
I think playing in a bush band would have been
even more fun than the actual dancing.
S2 (16:37):
I reckon you could make your own drum, or boomps
a tiddly and have your own bush band at home.
I wonder what other instruments you could be making out
of recycled stuff.
S3 (16:49):
Hmm. I'm thinking of other things. We used to recycle. Oh, yeah,
when I was young, and I grew out of my clothes.
They were passed on to my little sister.
S2 (16:59):
Well, toys are often recycled, sometimes for several generations. Children
grow up so their special toys are often packed away
until there are new children to enjoy them.
S3 (17:12):
I suppose. Rescue centres are a sort of recycling. They
try to find new homes for animals, which people have
loved but can no longer look after. Oh, that helps
the people who have had to give up their pets,
and the people who want to have a new pet
to love. It also helps the pets by finding them
a new home.
S2 (17:33):
Just think how frightened a pet that was used to
one home and people who loved it and cared for
it would feel if it was suddenly taken away from
the home and people it had always known. It would
probably be totally bewildered.
S3 (17:50):
Big word alert. Bewildered means unable to understand.
S2 (17:56):
People have been recycling for thousands of years in olden times.
Everything had to be made by hand, using whatever wood, bone,
stone or fibre that was around. Making tools and clothing
by hand from scratch takes time and a lot of
hard work. If something broke, it'd take a long time
(18:18):
to make another. So everything that could be mended was
mended or used for another purpose. Nothing was thrown away
if it could be used for something.
S3 (18:31):
These days, nearly everything is factory made and easily replaced.
If it isn't wanted anymore, just chuck it out. Verge
collections are for things which aren't wanted, but which someone
else might find useful.
S2 (18:47):
Our story today is about something useful that was put
out on the verge in case someone wanted to recycle it.
It had lots of uses in lots of different places,
and in the end it was truly recycled.
S3 (19:04):
Little Blue Chair by Carrie Fagan. Boo had a favorite chair.
It was little. It was blue. He liked to sit
on it while he ate his breakfast and his lunch
and his dinner. He carried it outside and sat among
the daffodils, looking at books. He made a tent around it.
(19:28):
He fell asleep on it. And then boo grew bigger.
He grew too big for the little blue chair, so
his mum put it at the end of the lawn.
She made a sign and hung it on the chair.
The sign said, please take me. A truck came rattling by.
(19:51):
It stopped. A man got out and put the chair
in the back of the truck. The man sold it
to a lady who ran a junk shop. It stayed
in the shop for a long time. One day a
woman came in. The chair will be perfect, she thought.
The woman put the chair by the window. On the
(20:13):
chair she put a pot with a little plant in it.
She watered the plant. It grew and grew and grew.
The plant grew into a tree. The woman dug a
big hole in her garden for it. She didn't need
the little blue chair anymore. So she put it at
(20:36):
the side of the road and hung a sign on it.
The sign said free to a good home. A boat's
captain strolled by on his way to the harbour. He
saw the chair. It will be perfect, he thought. And
he carried it on his shoulder on the boat. He
(20:56):
put it beside the captain's wheel. Now his daughter could
sit beside him while they sailed across the ocean. At
last the boat reached shore. The captain decided it was
time for them to stay in one place, so he
turned the boat into a snug little house. They didn't
(21:16):
need the little blue chair anymore, so the captain put
it on the beach with a sign, said, do you
need this? The chair stood on the beach for a
long time. One day a man and an elephant walked
along the beach. The man looked at the little blue chair.
(21:37):
It will be perfect, he thought. The man politely asked
the elephant to kneel down. He put the little blue
chair on the elephant's back. They walked along while the
man called out, elephant rides. Elephant rides. Children lined up
for a ride on the elephant. The elephant was very gentle.
(22:00):
After a few years, the man and the elephant decided
to retire. They didn't need the chair anymore, so the
man wrapped it up in brown paper, stuck a lot
of stamps on it, and put it in the mail
to his sister. His sister found the package on the doorstep.
She opened the package and saw the little blue chair. Oh,
(22:21):
it will be perfect, she thought. She put a bowl
of seeds on the chair. Then she used a rope
to raise the chair to the top of the tree.
From all around, birds appeared in the air. Little birds,
big birds, plane birds and fancy birds. They all perched
on the chair to eat the seeds. How lovely. Said
(22:44):
the sister. Some of the seeds fell to the ground.
They grew into a beautiful garden. Now the birds spent
all their time feeding in the garden. The sister didn't
need the little blue chair anymore, so she put the
chair out with a sign on it that said I
like to work. A few moments later, a carnival owner
(23:06):
came by and saw the chair. It will be perfect.
He thought the carnival had a big Ferris wheel. But
the Ferris wheel was missing one seat. The man installed
the little blue chair. Up, up it went. Round and
round it went. And the children screamed with pleasure. After
(23:28):
a few years, the motor on the Ferris wheel wore out.
So the carnival owner decided to dismantle it and use
all the pieces to build a copy of the Eiffel Tower.
The man didn't need the little blue chair anymore, so
he got an old can of paint and turned the
(23:49):
little blue chair red. Then he used it as a
prize in a contest. Whoever could throw a ring around
the milk bottle would win the chair. Many people tried.
At last, a boy threw the ring. It zipped through
the air and fell over the milk bottle. The winner,
(24:11):
the boy took the little chair home. He thought of
all kinds of things to use it for. He built
a go cart and used the chair as the driver's seat.
He wrote a play about a king and used the
chair as the king's throne. He got a bunch of
balloons and tied them to the chair. The boy wanted
the balloons to carry him into the sky. But before
(24:33):
he could sit down, the balloons lifted the chair away. Hey!
Come back, the boy called. But balloons don't listen to people.
The chair floated back over the ocean. It floated over
towns and cities and schools and playgrounds. The balloons began
(24:54):
to come down. The little chair landed in a front
garden right among the daffodils. A man came out of
the house. He looked at the chair the red paint
had chipped and he could see the blue underneath. Hmm.
You look familiar, said the man, whose name was boo.
(25:18):
Sure enough, it was the same boy who had loved
the chair a long time ago. Only now he was
a grown up. One leg had become wobbly, so the
man took it into the garage. He glued the chair's
wobbly leg. He gave it a new coat of blue paint.
Inside the house, the man's daughter, whose name was Belle,
(25:42):
lay on a rug looking at books. Here's a chair
for you, said her father. Belle carried the chair to
the corner. She put a pile of books beside it,
and also a glass of milk and a plate of cookies.
She sat on the chair. She smiled. This chair is perfect,
(26:03):
she said.
S2 (26:06):
That was a reading of Little Blue Chair, written by
Cary Fagan. The reader was Rebecca. That chair really was recycled.
It ended up right where it started. A full circle.
S3 (26:23):
Hmm. So what have we done today? We found out
about a lot of things that can be recycled. Who'd
have thought used coffee grounds could be so useful? I'm
never throwing mine away again.
S2 (26:36):
We had two big words to add to the big
words list. There was cycle, which means something which goes
around in a circle and bewildered, which means unable to understand.
S3 (26:49):
We also heard about how to make a snug pet
bed from an old tire and a swing to mustn't
forget the swing.
S2 (26:57):
If there was anything in today's program about which you
would like to know more, or you would just like
to say hello, you can find us at Radio Vision Australia.
So till we're.
S3 (27:12):
Recycled next week. I'm Geraldine and I'm Rebecca. Keep wearing
those happy pants.
S2 (27:20):
And we'll.
S3 (27:21):
Catch.
S2 (27:21):
You next time.
S5 (27:35):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area. We pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(27:58):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
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