What was your favorite toy? Did you have one? Was it a train set, or a doll? Some fancy electronic gadget? A board game? Something you made yourself?
Speaking for myself, I only have small impressions of most of the things I played with: we had a version of Pong which was a big deal in the seventies. I never bought a videogame system. I loved playing all manner of board games. The train set belonged to my older brother. I had a few Matchbox cars but was never obsessed.
If I had to pick anything, it would be the Mattel Electronics Football game. I had the first version, which was very simplistic: you moved your blip-running back passed four or five defenders to move the ball forward. I don’t recall if you played defense or not. It was incredibly easy, and you could rack up about ten or eleven touchdowns in the short amount of time each game lasted. Their was a second version that came out two or three years later, which allowed you to pass, but I never got that. These games are now sold as “retro” deals, cashing in on nostalgia for a pre-Nintendo age.
I keep thinking about all the stuff children get these days. Of course I’m more conscious of it now as someone actually paying for that stuff, but there are surely some days where there is over-stimulation and some days of boredom, both of which are okay, and normal. What is evident to me is how much children love to use their imaginations, and no matter what any object’s intended purpose, they’ll find new ways of using them.
A couch becomes a jungle gym. Rocks become jewels. Clothing becomes something to be tied to furniture. From the time they are babies, kids can’t be fooled by plastic objects that look like the real deal: sure those big pastel-colored keys might be safer to put in her mouth, but baby still wants her daddy’s keys (which she’ll eventually get when she’s sixteen, as long as she’s as sweet as she is at sixteen months).
And as all parents know, the greatest toy any child could ever want – besides of course a pop to bounce all over – is a large cardboard box. The hours of fun they have are priceless. It becomes a house, a store, a sanctuary. A secret club in the middle of the living room. Cut out a door, some windows, and give them some crayons or if you’re outside or just crazy, let ’em paint it. They can draw pictures, or hang some up inside. They can sell books. They can try falling asleep in it. It’s just amazing what they end up creating with it.
We’ve used two such boxes so far. The first was the baby’s infant car seat box, which our oldest loved to obliteration after about three weeks. Now that there are two of them, a bigger box is needed, and we just got one: our old water heater needed replacing, and a new one was delivered and installed today. The box was very large, and while the little one slept the big one and mom cut out windows and doors. They only got to play with it for about an hour or so, before dinner and pajama time, but when their aunt came by for dinner, they could not wait to show them “my new house!”
It really is the simple stuff that matters. Give them a box, some paper and writing tools, and they are happy.
To that end, we’re selling everything else on e-bay next week.