BuzzFeed Oz recently got to relive an iconic primary school experience by visiting Life Education NSW and reuniting with the one and only Healthy Harold.
1. Seeing this van pull up at school was the best time of the year.
2. Once inside the van you were "transported" to another dimension.
3. Eager students would wait for the learning to begin (but mostly wanted to see Harold).
4. Everyone would have to take the official learning position.
5. The educator always seemed like the coolest, most knowledgeable person in your little primary school world.
6. TAM's appearance was always exciting (even if she wasn't Harold).
7. And sometimes if you were lucky you'd see the high tech TAM.
While she's not officially on the bus, she is located in Life Education's head office amphitheatre. For the record, as a twentysomething it's surprisingly hard to locate your own body's organs.
8. Back to the van, and those incredible curtains.
9. But let's be real, Harold was the main attraction. And waiting for him to appear was always the highlight of the experience.
Yelling out his name, knocking on the walls, having the educator yell out to a magical world behind the curtain all added to the experience.
10. And then the real fun began when the lights went down and the twinkly stars on the ceiling came on.
11. Then there would be the cheesy educational videos.
As a kid, seeing a giant screen playing videos in a van was the most exciting thing ever.
12. There was lots of time for audience participation.
13. Then there would be organs on a rolled up mat.
And it was Serious Business trying to figure out where they went. You never wanted to get it wrong (even if there were a lot of mistakes in those early years).
14. A lot of time was spent playing guessing games.
15. You'd also learn safety lessons for every day life.
Most of the teaching is straight out of the '90s because every generation goes through the same issues, although some things have been updated (see: MEMES).
16. And how cool was the velcro on all the walls?
17. When you got to the lessons on drugs and alcohol it meant you were a big kid.
And it was never super preachy. Just information presented for everyone to draw their own conclusions.
18. Once it was all over, you got a personally signed graduation certificate from Harold.
19. And of course, huggable Harold.
