Around this time of the year I look at the toys in the various ads and catalogs and I’m amazed.

Thursday, December 28, 2000

Around this time of the year I look at the toys in the various ads and catalogs and I’m amazed. Thinking back to the toys I played with when I was young, I have realized how fortunate – or is it deprived? – I was.

The toy choices children are given today are so different from what I remember. It saddens me that they are no longer expected to use their imaginations to the extent that I was. No, instead every toy must respond, talk, or move, under its own power, of course.

While Barbie had a townhouse when I was little, as well as a car, they weren’t necessary for me to pretend that she was traveling or sleeping.

I distinctly remember putting Barbie in a shoe box and scooting her around our house en-route to Ken’s house. When I turned that same shoe box over, she had something to sleep on.

The most high-tech toys that I owned were an Inchworm and a Hippity-Hop – both of which were vehicles that I had to power myself. And to this day I wish that I still had them. I plan to bother the companies that made them or who currently make lookalikes, until they make adult-sized versions. We need to play too, right?

But I digress.

I remember when Fisher Price Little People didn’t have arms. While they’ve been enlarged to prevent choking, they have also been altered to require less imagination. Why can’t they still be made without arms? Even as I sat in my room and created countless scenarios with them, I didn’t miss those arms.

When I was about nine, my parents bought some appliances and gave the boxes to my sister and me. Those boxes became an intricate fort in the woods of our back yard. We would climb a nearby tree and jump in or pretend that it was a hiding place. When the boxes disintegrated because of moisture, we found something else to play with.

Imagine listening only to the soundtrack of your favorite Disney movie and having to visualize the moving picture. I had all of the Disney albums memorized as a child, and when videos came along I was amazed at what I had only seen on movie screens once or twice years before.

I hope children will find the most amazing, breathtaking, vivid pictures within themselves instead of because of what has been suggested to them. I’m not saying that children shouldn’t be allowed to witness the wonder of movies, TV shows and electronic toys; I guess I’m just hoping that just as many children played with boxes this Christmas.