Favorite Toys

Several weeks ago Ervin Stutzman showed me a toy that he received as a child. It was new then, and is probably about 77 years old now. It's still around because it was made of cast metal. It represented a car made before 1920. Some of the wooden wheels had been replaced, but otherwise, there wasn't much that could wear out.

I look at toys like that and admire their sturdiness, and I'm wistful about the throwaway toys that many children are most familiar with. Wouldn't it be better if they were more durable?

"If you're lucky, your kids' toys will break and you can throw them away." When my children were small, I read that statement referring to the other side of the toy issue. Endless accumulation is a real pain, and being able to throw old damaged toys away with a clear conscience is good too.

I remember several toys the boys used to have and enjoy--none of which currently clutter up our space:

A toy shopping cart--great for a toddler to push around and carry things in
A small plastic pail with a shovel, hoe and rake
A workbench with pegs, screws, bolts, a hammer, a wrench, and a screw driver
A small wheelbarrow--We have a picture of Shane with a giant head of cabbage in his when he was about five. He loved that little red wheelbarrow.
A mower--Grant did a lot of mowing, complete with appropriate grunts while pulling on the imaginary starter rope.
A chainsaw--Another favorite of Grant's toys. (All Grant's practice with these toys may have paid off for him literally. Cutting wood and doing yard work have helped him earn money since he was about ten years old.)
A vinyl floor mat with roads, fields, and a farmstead printed on it--The boys used vehicles and farm equipment to move from place to place and to work in the fields.
Riding toys--I remember only two--both of which are long gone, but were fun while they lasted

A few toys that we still have somewhere:
Scrap wood--My cabinet maker brother-in-law got really nice oak scraps from the shop where he worked--actually ends of boards--very useful for laying out roads and building structures.
A John Deere combine--probably the most expensive toy we ever bought
Fischertechnik--This name is not complete, but it refers to a set of very nicely designed gears, rods, wheels, pulleys, propellers, etc. with which real working toys can be constructed--things like cars, and helicopters, and cranes, etc.
Cuisenaire Rods--Technically, these are math manipulatives, but they're great toys, and children learn a lot by playing with them.

Outdoors they used boards, ropes, miniature garden tools, bricks, rocks, tin cans, buckets, short and flat metal rods, straw bales, grass clippings (for hay), and hoses. They played with kittens and puppies, and fought off bossy geese and cocky roosters. They raised broilers from chicks and gathered eggs from laying hens. They fed rabbits, and 4H sheep and pigs, and drove or led the sheep and pigs round and round in the sheep pen. Joel had fancy chickens like Japanese Bantams--one of which he rescued when a hawk was just about to fly off with it.

Looking back, I marvel that, with our limited means, we could actually provide all these things for our boys to play with and learn by, and I thank God. I hope they can provide a rich environment for their children some day--perhaps different from that of their own childhood, but full of opportunities to explore, imagine, create, discover, nurture, and conquer.