Our Town

Things were different when we were young. I know I’ve frequently used this venue to make that point before, but it’s true. Media and media usage were different. Social conventions were different. Even play was different. And one huge difference in that playtime was a driving impulse to find things to do that weren’t playing video game systems or computer games, isolating ourselves with music only we could hear, or watching television--mostly because we either didn’t have one yet or the tiny, black and white ones we did have didn’t have any programs for kids most of the time. So, we improvised with all the stuff we could lay our hands on, sometimes creating entire toy cities with mix-and-match materials. We used old-fashioned wooden blocks with new-fangled Legos and Bristle Blox. We used Barbies and Star Wars figures and Fisher Price Little People (the original choking-hazard ones, not the big, fat ones they have now). We used wood scraps, fabric remnants, kitchen utensils, and construction castoffs from our newly-built house. If we were desperate (and we usually were) we even used the Legos-for-babies Duplo blocks to finish our creations. And then we would concoct complex storylines, sometimes spreading out over the entire room and several days, to inhabit our new world. In Anastasia Suen’s Red Light, Green Light, one curly-haired boy builds a super highway of his own with bottles, pencils and empty cans. Remembering doing that? Remember those times? I do and I miss them. Those were the days.

P.S. Happy Birthday to my favorite Halloween baby!



http://www.amazon.com/Red-Light-Green-Anastasia-Suen/dp/0152025820

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/childrens_writing/97061