The Saga of "Joytoo"

This is aother story that is out of sequence. I ran into an old friend this past week and these memories surfaced so here they are.

I was sitting in the choir loft at church in late August 1991, listening to the sermon. The pastor was talking about a program that a local hospital had initiated. It was called The Clown Connection.

Little bells went off in my head, letting me know I should check out this program. I did check it out. The hospital had a new session beginning in September. So I signed up. We would be meeting weekily in the chapel at the hospital. The class was called "Introduction to Spiritual Growth and Hospital Visitation." The first part of the name is accurate but I am not sure about the last part. We would be receiving 100 hours of training over a two-year period.

The first class occurred at a very good time for me. It was the week after I was fired from my job.

The people who did most of the teaching/training were Tom, the head of the hospital chaplaincy (we referred to him as our clown "Papa,") and Kay was our clown "Mama." There was another person or two who also were active in our training.

We were told to visualize our clown in one class. Each one of us went to a different spot in the chapel. We closed our eyes to meditate on who our clown would be. When we came back together, we discussed our clowns. When I said my clown's name was "Joy," one of the other ladies looked so disappointed because her clown was named "Joy," also. I told her not to worry about it. Her clown could be "Joy" and my clown name would be "Joytoo." And that is the way it was.

I visualized a polka dot dress, white tights, lacy white anklets and black Mary Jane shoes. "Joytoo" is a redhead, wearing a red yard wig with a poolka dot ribbon in her hair. She is a bashful 3-year-old.

We were the second class to graduate with the 100 hours of training. We were trained to visit patients in the hospital. Then after the visit we were to write a "verbatim" - everything we said and the patient said. Then we'd talk about how the visit turned out and what could make it better. I never felt comfortable visiting patients and I hated writing the "verbatim."

We also marched in the Freedom Festival Parade, volunteered at Fun Fest, visited nursing homes, marched at the parade at Brandon Days, and helping with church services. We even went to Des Moines as a group where the hospital was going to talk about what the program was doing, etc. When we went places as a group, we were to hang on to a large yellow rope- just like pre-schoolers or kindergartners when they take a field trip. We behaved worse that the little kids. When we didn't hang on to the rope, we'd wander off to talk to people - and it was always hard to get us all back together!

It was interesting driving in clown makeup. Either people smiled and waved or else they quickly looked away. Sometimes it made me feel like I was invisible!

"Joytoo" evolved into a little older clown and so did her outfit. The second year she wore 3/4 length bibbie overalls made of jungle print material, sneakers with rainbow shoe laces, a gold Clown Connection tee shirt and gold "slouch" socks.

We all learned how to play again. We became more spontaneous. We were taught to be very careful with children - because everyone does not necessarily like clowns. If a child acted afraid, we learned to mirror their fear and take it slowly. Sometimes parents would shove their children at us and we knew to back away and respect the child's reaction.

"Joytoo" met some special children and she wrote weekly notes for a couple years to several of them.

Some of Joytoo's special friends were Smiley, Pansie, Cherish, Meoldee, Barnabeth, Music Man, Rountuit, Smedley, Joy, Snookie, Heppy, Tag Along, and Mopsy.

Clown Connection was disbanded several years later. It was a great learning experience. I refer to "Joytoo" as she and her - because she was an individual. When "Joytoo" went places, BJ was there but it was "Joytoo" who talked, etc. That may sound strange but it truly is the way it was. It was like I was two people - BJ when wearing regular clothes and "Joytoo" when in her clothes.

The photo of us in street clothes was our graduation photo. The one of "Joytoo" alone was taken by the hospital photographer and the other photo shows part of the group dressed as clowns.