Don’t Just Buy Toys, Purchase Imagination

One of the best things about having young grandchildren: You can peek at toy catalogs just like when you were a youngster.
Aside from the prices, which make one’s eyes go out on extensions, toys for modern children are a far cry from those I remember from the 1950s.
Imagine, if you will, a toy catalog where absolutely no batteries are required for play.
Imagine, too, the thrill on Christmas morning opening a present and the child immediately begins to play with it. Could it be there would be no need for instruction manuals in several languages, or a construction manual, also in several languages?
There exist firms that sell such toys, like Lincoln Logs, rubber band propelled airplanes and Slinkies that still go back and forth and down stairs to amazement of everyone. Locally, there is at least one retailer who sells toys that are kid-propelled, by foot and nothing else.
Twice above I used “imagine.” You probably didn’t realize it, but there was a reason. A very important intangible lacking in many of toys I have seen in this year’s catalogs is “Imagination.”
Many playthings are highly detailed. In fact there are some that require no physical interaction by the “player” other than to push a button or press a pedal with a foot. How much fun can that be for a hyperactive toddler or slightly older child?
Isn’t half the fun of childhood using your imagination? Why are children more fascinated by empty cardboard boxes than with the expensive toys in which they were transported? I still think youngster like to use their imaginations.
Without a vivid imagination society is sunk. We need visionaries for the future, and that future is growing up this year. The future thinkers are going to be gifted this season by toys that frustrate more than entertain.
Once batteries quit, that $60 toy is as useless as a solemn and silent doll that did nothing for a little girl except smile. In fact, how many little girls grew up imagining the conversations their dolls and stuffed animals had at bedroom tea parties?
How many boys learned to think for themselves in tree forts using sticks for weapons to shoot imaginary aliens?
Where would the world be without future visionaries like Walt Disney? Thank goodness Walt didn’t have battery-operated toys to play with when he was growing up, or we might never have had characters like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck.
We honor Disney’s vision, yet are we cultivating “Imagineers” of tomorrow to think up new playthings, or more importantly, new ways to live better with less energy consumption?
I must hand it to the folks who created Legos. They are wonderful thought provoking models that, when put together, are simply amazing. However, whoever gifts a little child with Legos ought to be the one who helps put the creation together on Christmas morning, using their imagination with all those multi-colored pieces, and what to do with those darn leftover pieces.
When all the glitz and glitter is gone, and many of those elegant electronic toys are turned off, recharging and put away for the evening, I’d like to bet there will be some simple fuzzy stuffed bear or wide-eyed doll that will accompany boys and girls to bed.
There was a time when advertisements in such publications as “Boys Life” advocated a set of electric trains for the engineers of tomorrow.
Yes, I fell prey to them, as did many others of my generation. Some fully embraced those small trains, steam locomotives pulling red and blue and yellow boxcars, and imagined themselves at the controls of some mighty engine rolling down the tracks at 100 mph.
It was grand, until the electric was turned off. Still, enough was left to one’s imagination that made it fun, even as we watched the trains go around in eternal circles or through miniature towns and cities.
Regardless of what toys are purchased, it’s still fun to flip through the catalog pages and see what the children of today will be playing with tomorrow.
Still, the ones I find most intriguing are those with less detail that leave so much more to a child’s vivid imagination. They are the ones that will be remembered long after the mechanisms, made in China, fetch up, and batteries within them corrode.
Dolls will still smile, wide-eyed at bedtime and teddy bears will still be warm, fuzzy, and friendly after decades. That’s how long imagination should last.