Old Toys, New Toys, and Memories

Over the last week, Gilahi has run a series of four posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) highlighting toys some of us are old enough to remember from our misspent youths. I was amazed to see some of these things again: "Classic Green Army Men," the "Tin Harmonic Top," the original "Slinky" (made of steel wire, not plastic); and for budding engineers, "Lincoln Logs" and "Tinkertoys." I think the only one he missed was the wonderful Kenner "Girder and Panel Building Set." Of course, he did find two things I didn't remember, but could certainly use: "Tired Old Ass Soak" and "Aging Hippy Bath Oil Fizz."

Those brought back memories. Not the Tired Old Ass Soak, the toys.

Last weekend Agnes and I were out doing initial Christmas gift reconnaissance, and I was amazed at some of the toys that are on sale for children. Most of them are made of colorful plastic and feature flashing lights and the sound effects we used to have to make ourselves (children love my UFO sounds). Girls have big-busted Barbie dolls instead of Mrs Beasley, and it's difficult to find a toy for girls that doesn't have Hannah Montana somehow tied to it; boys have "GI Joe action figures" instead of the solid plastic "classic green army men" I used to play with until I learned that war actually hurts.

My daughter sent the grandparents an e-mail the other day, imploring us to avoid kitschy, overly gender-specific girly gifts for Leya in favor of things that are educational. The list was comprehensive and well thought-out, and reflected her desire to provide appropriate and useful gifts for her daughter. I'm just glad I won't have to return the "Baby's First Atomic Pile" I ordered (no "atomic pile" jokes related to diapers, please, Mike).

Toys have changed quite a bit since I was young, as I'm sure our parents lamented when they bought toys for us. There's a great story on the CNN website today that announces the latest addition to The National Toy Hall of Fame: the plain old stick, "a universal plaything powered by a child's imagination."

Imagination is the key word, here. We've all seen how the child often has more fun playing with the box than with the expensive toy that came packaged in it. Imagination is the fuel that powers the engine of play, and it's the steadily decreasing level of imagination that makes adulthood so dreary for many of us. Most of us would rather watch a movie that puts spectacular visuals right in front of us than read the book that requires us to use our imagination to flesh out the story. Yesterday I wrote about science fiction stories like Jurassic Park and Danger: Dinosaurs!. The eye-popping visuals of the film version of Jurassic Park were truly amazing...but somehow I think the mental images I got from reading the original story were just as good, if not better.

If you give a child a stick for Christmas, people will think you're a cheap grinch or worse. But that stick can become a king's sceptre, a knight's sword, a fishing pole, or a wizard's wand. The illuminated, sound-effect-enhanced, glow-in-the-dark plastic light saber will always be an illuminated, sound-effect-enhanced, glow-in-the-dark plastic light saber. The humble stick will always be so much more, its simplicity given power by the fuel of a child's imagination.

That's something worth thinking about this year as we visit Costco or Wal-Mart or Toys'r'Us to seek out the latest computer-enhanced fancy toys. They'll be fun for a while. But when the batteries run down or the plastic shell breaks or the new, upgraded version comes out, that plain old stick will still be there. And there are lots more where it came from. And they're free.

Sticks. Don't take a walk without them.

New topic: tomorrow, right after I post this week's Cartoon Saturday, Agnes and I will be leaving for our well-deserved and long-delayed vacation. Does this look like a happy fellow?

We'll be gone for about 2 1/2 weeks, and although we'll have Agnes's laptop along, I probably won't be able to post every day, if at all. I'll be too busy writing Fiona's letter and catching up on my reading and relaxing. Don't give up - I'll be back.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo