Skip to main content

Flashback Friday - Toy Story


Babysitters worth their salt will be well versed with all of the Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks cartoon movies that kids like to watch.  By kids, I include big old senior kids like myself.    Ask me my reviews of Rio, Brave, Ice Age, Happy Feet, Up, or Tangled. One of my, uh, Norah's favorites is Toy Story III, and the other two which form a pretty nifty trio of Pixar animated magic.  The over-arching premise is that eventually kids give up their toys, they stop being kids and grow up.  The toy angst is to be abandoned by their kids.  In the end Woody, Buzz and their buddies do lose their kid Andy, but find someone else who needs the comfort and joy of toys.

Today's flashback is to show you guys that this big old kid never gave up all of his toys.  Sure, I don't have either one of the electronic football games we got for Christmas, or the pinball machine that got ruined in the Great Flood.  Gone is the panda teddy bear that I just had to have one Christmas.  One summer our grandparents who lived in Quincy brought us up toys useful for the sandbox we had next to the house.  I still remember it being a type of wheeled augur with buckets perfect for sand.  They are all long gone except for these.

As a 10 or 11 year old I slipped out to the garage once and started practising my driving.  I opened the garage door got into the driver's seat and decided to work on my reverse skills.  I started the car, slowly put the car in gear and gently touched the accelerator and moved the car a bit outside.  Then I would put the car in "D" and slowly bring it back in.  I'm not sure which time it happened but I must have attempted to reverse but my foot slipped and the car went back far too fast.  I was able to brake in time but, trouble was, I forgot to close the door.  It got jammed on something alongside the garage and tore it up pretty good.  It had to go into the shop for repairs.  My ass was dinged up a little too, when Dad got home.

The Mercedes has a little suspension problem, and the old Model T truck some rust, but they were good reliable toys that I had as a little kid and treasure for the time they gave me and their durability.  They aren't worth much, none is a Tonka which I understand bring good prices in auctions.  None are in their original box which brings more.  No, these were take home and play with objects, probably ripped out of their boxes in the back seat of the car and run up my Wombie's arm and face to check out the friction plate rear tires.

Through all the moves and one major flood, I kept these guys.  I figure if they can stay loyal to me for 50 years then I can hang on just as long.  I find it a bit interesting that they are all in the automotive area.  In what was a bit of foreshadowing these guys paved the way for this writer to become an avid old car fan and collector.   The question to ponder, then, is did these toys ingrain in me this future personal compulsion, or was the seed already there, and manifested in the toys I enjoyed?  The answer of course is and will remain a mystery.  How can we know?

What toys have you kept?


 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the facts of the murder and attempted murder are most unpleasant
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week.  Except for me.  I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers.  These pics need no words.  Why muddy the waters?   They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley.  The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter.  If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one.  But, please, no more.   
Post a Comment
Read more

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

Welcome back to a pretty neat tour of the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland Florida.  There's a lot to see and a couple of the old Geezer Gold Wing guys are already sitting down instead of walking around looking at the exhibits. That's John who is wore out and making a call to his wife.  In all honesty, John was pretty well bushed before the ride.  He told me his daughter's family was down from one of the Carolina's with the grand kids and he must have played with them too much.   He's about to take off on his own and head for home, but he's going to miss a couple of neat things out on Hangar A.   But, before we walk over there, we have lots yet to see here.  If you saw The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard Hughes, you'll remember that he went up in a plane during the filming of one of his movies to prove a point about flying.  He crashed trying to execute a roll and this is a picture of the plane he crashed.  Note the propeller
1 comment
Read more