I recently read a list of the best-selling toys of time. There were familiar ones from my own past including the Hula Hoop, the View Master, the Slinky, the Pet Rock, Mr. Potato Head, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Gameboys, Barbie, and Nerf balls.
Some of these are relics of my day. Some were created in my kid’s formative years. Some transcend time.
But there are three toys that every kid in every generation and culture will enjoy — A stick, a ball, and a box.
When I was out with my brother and Joey from down the street, we each had our own stick. We poked at the frogs croaking in the drainage ditch. And with those sticks we warded off aggressors raiding our make-believe castle. Later, we would sit on a fence and draw faces in the dirt with their pointed ends.
And every kid needs a ball. We had a basketball that we wore thin down to the core, shooting baskets though the net-less rim until the dark chased us inside. We found a kickball in the weeds one day, obviously forgotten and abandoned. We showered it with great affection as we kicked it back and forth for hours.
And life was at its very best when we found a good box. I remember the refrigerator box that lasted us all summer. We would strap a vegetable box on top of a skateboard, sit inside it, and then get a tow from a bicycle. Boxes were building materials for forts and buildings and tanks. And any box was good to keep stuff in – stuff like our balls and sticks.
Now that I’m grown up, I find myself looking at some of the toys of my friends and neighbors.
Like the new boat down the street. It’s one of those fancy ones with the canopy and big deck. I’m sure there is a booming sound system and tow ropes to pull inner tubes across the water.
And the other neighbor got one of those campers that are less like camping and more luxury living, with a bedroom on wheels fancier than the one we sleep in every night. He calls it “glamping.”
Despite the allure, I’m still sticking with simple. I have a car and a tent. Maybe I’ll go down to the lake and watch the kids swim in the water with floaties on their wrist. The hot dogs will roast on a three-dollar disposable that I’ll share with family and friends. And strangers, too.
And maybe I’ll all sit on a box in the sand, waving a stick in the air and throw a ball in the air until the sun goes down.
What’s your favorite toy?
[box] What He Said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”[/box]
[box type=”info”] I was honored to have this published in More Living magazine, a publication of LifeWay Christian Resources © Copyright 2013. Used with permission. To order a subscription, call 800.458.2772 or visit www.lifeway.com/magazines . This is a great magazine for boomers![/box]
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