Favorite Toys...

What were your favorite toys as a kid? Mine were, even way after I was too big to play with them, some simple wooden puzzles, the silly stacking ring things, nested cups again in bright colors that you could stack in different ways and other non-battery operated items.

Why? I guess because #1 there WEREN'T that many battery operated things back then, and #2, because I would have gotten very bored with them after a while. Same way with dolls. They didn't 'do' anything and you could do very little with them. Once you changed their clothes, fed them and played with them a little bit, there wasn't much left to do with them. I never had an in-depth active imagination for 'fake' things. I knew dolls weren't real and never would be. I never really did like Barbies. I think Barbie is a w-h -o--r--e. Well, she's made to resemble a French pros-ti tute doll, so there you go. No, I'm not making that up. She really was made that way. And, if she were a real live woman, well, she'd be dead from being anorexic and if she was still crawling around she'd literally be crawling as her boobs are so out of proportion to the rest of her that she'd have to 'walk' on all fours. Needless to say Barbie and I didnt have a whole lot in common.

I played in the dirt, picked up worms, squished bugs, investigated things in the garden, chased butterflies (never with a net! you'll hurt them!) around, and just made my own fun sitting in the dirt. I'm so sick of hearing kids say 'I'm bored' that I could scream. If I would have dared to utter the words 'I'm bored' -- I would have had so many chores to do it wouldn't be funny. I think I may have been threatened a time or two before I realized that entertaining myself would be much smarter than whining about not having anything to do!

When winter came, we went sledding, played in the snow, got really cold, and then came in and had hot chocolate. In the summer, the creek was always an invite, for squishing mud in your toes and looking for toads/frogs to watch them. When we were old enough, occasionally we got to go 'to town' to go to the pool in the summer. Not much, but some. Then there were always books, I probably read every book that we had 10 times over, but I gained an excellent vocabulary, grasp of language, and deductive reasoning skills. I was smarter than most of my classmates. Mostly because I didnt spend all my time stuck in front of the tv. Yes, I watched tv, but I was always held by the call of the wild outdoors.

I hope I can help my own child/ren hear their own call of the wild, learn to appreciate the simple and make their own fun. I'm sure, like my mother, that I'll have plenty to do in case they get 'bored'!