My mom was good at saving box tops from various products to be redeemed for merchandise. One of her scores was a free Richard Scary compilation picture book from Tide detergent. I still have it and I believe it is becoming as beloved and familiar to Eli as it was to me growing up.
Mom's other big score was a free play house from Keebler brand cookies. Made of sewn-together sheets of plastic printed to look like the Keebler elves' hollow tree, this cover fit down over a standard card table and converted it into a play space.
Along about the time the Keebler table cover came into our lives, my brother, Eric, and I were given a set of Giant Tinkertoys. Mom let some other kids borrow them after we were grown, but eventually they ended up in my brother's attic. Not long ago he pulled them out for Eli. Just looking at the box was a trip down Memory Lane. I remember climbing into that box for hide-and-seek.
Our dad worked with us to build each creation pictured on the box.
I had a Dressy Bessy doll just like the one in the swing below!
Can you tell that Little House on the Prairie and Holly Hobby was popular back then?
Once we'd been through the box designs a time or two, we started to branch out and come up with our own creations. And then somebody thought to pair the Giant Tinkertoys with the Keebler tent.
"Keebler Elves" became a regular game for my brother and me. It was perfect. I got to do lots of imaginary baking and gardeny gathering while my mechanically-minded brother designed harvesting machines. In our Keebler world, the hollow tree baking kitchen was on the edge of a lush forest and all around us there were cookies and treats growing on various bushes, in trees, and across the fields. Eric came up with a Tinkertoy design that looked like a lawn mower and had spinning rods -- perfect for harvesting those low-growing chocolate chips. On other days he invented a teetering tower harvester to scoop up those wafer cookies growing on tall-climbing vines. Even all these years later, when I think back on that game I can vividly remember the images from my mind's eye. That sunny Keebler world stretched on forever -- an endless wild landscape somehow held in the confines of the living room of our small ranch-style suburban house.
Such kid-magic!
The Giant Tinkertoys were indoor toys for us, but whoever borrowed them from Mom must have taken them outside. They were filthy -- dusty but also with red mud packed into some of the holes. Once spring warmth came, Eli and I took them out for a good soaking and scrubbing.
Does my child look soggy? That is because five year-olds have NO IMPULSE CONTROL. My son shot me in the stomach with a jet of cold water, so I had no choice but to wrestle the hose away and give him his just desserts. After much shrieking and giggling, we got the job done.
The Giant Tinkertoys were clean at last. I couldn't help but grin when I saw some kid-lettering left on them...
Sadly, the old Keebler tent died in the attic. The heat turned it into a sticky mass that could no longer be unfolded. But the Giant Tinkertoys -- undeniably one of the best toys of our childhood -- have lived on for another generation.
I can only hope that Eli will somehow find his own magical world within the confines of that same dusty cardboard box.
Wow. I had a set of those tinker toys as well. My sister and I spent endless hours building all kinds of things and pretending.
I also never had a better toy - well except Barbie, her friends and the houses I created for her from shoeboxes.
Thanks for the beautiful memories. "Magic" is the right word to use.
Posted by: Yana | 13 April 2018 at 02:54 PM