child's play

On a recent shopping trip to Archie McPhee's, I found a little hut full of farm animals, people and fences. It was the exact same little hut I had when I was about seven or so. I've had it on my dining room table and find it quite amusing to play with while eating dinner. The farmer still has a shotgun tucked under one arm (to shoot the little rabbits?) and his wife is still poised with chicken feed. I was amazed to find that anything from my childhood was still being sold.

Other favorite toys from childhood include Tinker Toys (the wood ones in the picture...not the plastic ones you get these days), Legos (the ones that did not include anything fancier than a platform with wheels and had pieces that children under three could have choked on), and a little plastic sheet in a frame that would change colors and show contrast when left out in the sun with an object on it. Also featured in the photo is a chair my grandparents gave me. It was the Jolly Green Giant's hand and oh, how I loved that chair! I also loved my skateboards. I had two that I got at about eight or nine and would take them apart, clean the ball bearings and trucks and put them back together over and over. Sometimes I would swap the trucks on the two boards and would toy with various levels of looseness for those tight turns. I still love my skateboard, though don't take it apart anymore and prefer the longboard to the short one.