"Do you mean you are not preserving my room exactly as I left it?", I incredulously inquired.
"And take your baseball cards too, sweetie.", they answered.
Since the folks are cleaning house, I had the opportunity to relive my youth through my kids. Number One Son immediately zeroed in on the cardboard box marked 'Star Wars'. "Are those your old Star Wars toys, Dad?", he asked.
"Yes they are."
"What are they for?", he fished, feeling me out.
"Would you like to have them?", I asked.
Luckily I had a brown paper bag for N1S to hyperventilate into. He spent the rest of the afternoon assembling and then playing with my old 'Death Star' set up. It didn't matter that all of his action figures were left at home. He made do with the Fischer Price people that Grandma had.
Sweet Pea then felt left out. I rummaged around and found my old Fort Cheyenne cowboys and Indians set. She had just as much fun with that as N1S did with his. After a while they traded and played for even longer. Who would have thought that Dad's ancient playthings would bring such wonder and imagination to the next generation? Maybe that says something about today's toys.
Another box contained an old train set of mine. We will see if it works this Spring. The last three boxes to be loaded into the pickup were full of baseball and football cards. I can foresee a visit to EBAY in the near future. Of course I will have to sort and research what I have first. Or should I just keep all of my cards and spend the time reading about each player of old with SP and N1S? A little bit of both I expect.
I rummaged a little more and found my grade school lunch box.
In grade school, you were only as cool as your lunchbox. You can correctly surmise that I was the coolest kid in school. All of those kids with sports or Star Wars themed lunch boxes weren't good enough to sit at my table. Therefore, they all sat together at a table separate from us cool kids. 'Pigs In Space' was really cool back in the day. That's what I'm telling myself anyway. My lunchbox is made of actual metal and still has it's thermos. I'm sure my kids have no idea what the word 'thermos' means.
Visiting the past in this way was very fun and satisfying for me. Each toy brought back pleasant memories and also gave me new memories, watching my kids enjoy them the second time around.
I think Grandma still has some of my toys hidden away, for when the grand kids visit. My Steve Austin (The Bionic Man) action figure (not a doll) was in a box clearly marked, yet not included in my pile of boxes to take home.
My plan now is to visit the 'Grandma toy store' sometime before next Christmas to stock up on the season's hottest old toy. I think this is an acceptable type of re-gifting.
