from the December 24, 2002 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1224/p17s01-lifp.html
Toy Stories
*If you want to reduce serious adults to silly smiles, ask about their
favorite childhood toy - the one they held onto for years, or perhaps
still have. Some toys live long beyond the days of boyhood and girlhood.*
*By Ross Atkin <mailto:D2EFF3F3A0C1F4EBE9EE>* | Staff writer of The
Christian Science Monitor
Who says that toys are just kid stuff? When mountains of gifts are
opened tomorrow in homes across the US, their young owners may discover
that they've been given passports to a world beyond any they've known.
The toys they unwrap may transport them to distant stars and faraway
countries, to a land of fantasies and imagination, where they get to be
astronauts, parents, and kings or queens.
What the young recipients might not realize until much later, though, is
how much of an impact those toys could have on their adult lives.
Some playthings nurture, instill creativity, or make tough times easier
for a child. But the best toys open the doors to the future by fostering
deep-seated interests and talents - and their effects can last for a
lifetime.
Just ask Caryn Amster. When she was barely tall enough to be seen behind
the cash register, Ms. Amster helped out in her parents' Wee Folks toy
store on 79th Street in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood.
Over the years she has seen, time and time again, how profoundly a toy
can change a child's life.
In fact, she is so convinced of the power of child-toy ties that she is
writing a book about her parents' store and the toy memories of some of
its former customers.
She recalls two boys who often visited the store and grew up to be
engineers.
"Did their meticulousness come first," Amster wonders, "or did they
learn to be meticulous by building these very intricate 450-piece boats,
the battleships and sailing ships that came in huge boxes?"
No one can say for sure what the connection is, but it's generally
agreed that the how isn't that important. The outcome is what matters,
and for generation after generation, toys have taught important lessons.
*My first teddy bear*
One of the earliest lessons may be that the world, while a big and
strange place, can also be soft and inviting.
Toys allow children to nurture and feel nurtured, according to Dolph
Gotelli, who teaches environmental design at the University of
California, Davis. That's why Professor Gotelli gives teddy bears to the
infant children of friends. Those bears provide a warm welcome to the
world for their young owners, and the comfort they offer can stay with
children for years.
Stewart Goodbody, a professional woman in New York, knows this
firsthand. Ms. Goodbody received a Velveteen Rabbit on her first
birthday and still has it. "Having my stuffed animal for 24 years has
been a great source of comfort for me," she says.
Some children, growing up in turbulent times, find solace and
understanding in a particular toy. Weeble Wobbles are a good example.
Created in 1969, the egg-shaped plastic people may have looked kooky,
but their family ties and counterweighted bodies gave them a lovable
quality.
"Weeble Wobbles were absolutely wonderful," says Rebecca Laurie, a media
relations specialist at the University of Denver. "It is the only toy
set that I can think of in the late 1970s and early '80s - during a time
of mass divorce and the liquidation of the nuclear family - that seemed
to promote family and togetherness.
"The Weebles weren't perfect. They rolled around if you tipped them over
and had two-dimensional faces, almost as if they were clumsy," she says.
But they allowed children to play house and deal with real-life issues
while also "being injected into a fantasy world."
Fantasy worlds, whatever form they take, aren't just fun for children,
they are valuable training grounds, say experts. They give children a
chance to try on new situations and develop their values in enjoyable,
low-pressure ways.
Take, for example, the Lionel electric train that Richard Culver of
Salisbury, Mass., received the year he was 6.
The toy didn't cause him to grow up to work for a railroad, but it did
have a lasting effect on his life in ways he couldn't have imagined.
It might be expected that it would instill a lifelong romance with rail
travel, and that's true. He takes Amtrak whenever he can, sitting in the
back of the train so he can envision a red caboose like those that
intrigued him as a boy.
But it was the village he created inside the tracks of his toy train
that impressed him the most - and continues to influence where he lives
as an adult.
"The village fascinated me - it would change each year in some way," Mr.
Culver says. "It was nothing special, just decorated cardboard houses
with cellophane windows, bottle-brush trees, and the essential mirror
lake with skaters, all on cotton batting."
Still, simple as it was, "it formed my vision of what a town should be,"
he says. "I've never been a suburbs guy. The New England village is
still my ideal of the American community."
*Creating an imaginary world*
Toys such as Culver's train are important in children's lives because
they encourage them to draw on their imagination and creativity, says
Gotelli. In many cases, he adds, such playthings reflect a desire to
mimic the adult world.
When Whit Alexander was growing up at the height of the space race, he
dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Playing with his Major Matt Robinson
action figure, he created elaborate space adventures, using the
household pets as "designated aliens."
His wish to be a space traveler didn't come true. The Seattle resident
instead worked for Microsoft and became cocreator of Cranium, a
well-known board game. But he does see the toy astronaut's lingering
influence on his life. "I recently took up flying lessons, and that sort
of brings the dream of flight a little closer to reality," he says.
Gotelli also created living-room "productions" when he was a boy. In his
case, the main character was a Howdy Doody marionette, which now hangs
on his studio wall. Today, he teaches a class called "Fantasy,
Imagination, and Creativity," and often uses toys from his collection in
class discussions. He laments the rise of computerized toys and the
demise of those that tap a child's imagination.
*Connecting generations*
But Gotelli would wholeheartedly approve of a gift like the one Kurt
Praschak of Pompton Plains, N.J., received as a child. Most of his
boyhood toys have long since vanished, but Mr. Praschak continues to
hold onto several hundred toy dinosaurs, many of which were purchased
for him by his grandfather.
Through playing with these plastic miniature dinosaurs, Praschak
developed a fascination with fossils, and he has passed it - and the
toys - along to his 7-year-old son, Derek.
When Praschak was a boy, he felt that the toy figures represented power,
excitement, and mystery. "Let's face it," he says, "most kids love
dinosaurs."
Even today, he glues himself to the TV to watch Discovery Channel
specials on the prehistoric themes and devours news reports about major
new fossil finds. "I suppose it all traces back to that old box of
dinos," he says.
Beyond fueling his continuing interest in prehistoric life, he sees the
miniature dinosaurs connecting four generations of males in his family.
When his son is playing with the toys, he's "connecting in some way with
a great-grandfather he never met," Praschak says. "I sit in my living
room and watch him having an absolutely great time with the very same
toys that captivated me decades before. It's almost like being able to
open a door on the past and revisit my childhood."
*When I grow up, I want to be...*
For some children, however, a toy doesn't just foster an interest, it
sets them on their future career path.
Tom Holland of Calabasas, Calif., can attribute not just one but two
careers to toys he received as a boy. A 1964 Sears 8-mm moviemaking kit
led to his becoming a television producer. But the nostalgia for a
number of toys from his youth also caused him to form Windmill Press,
which reprints pages from Sears and Montgomery Ward toy catalogs from
the 1950s to 1980s. These are filled with nostalgia-inducing photos of
such classics as Betsy Wetsy dolls, light sabers, Twister, and a tea set
made from real china.
Toys "help us explore new things and shape our personalities," Mr.
Holland says.
Cynthia McKay of Castle Rock, Colo., loved Monopoly growing up, but was
always struck by how some players ended up penniless at the end of the
game. As a result, "I decided to attend law school, hoping to work as a
pro bono or consumer lawyer, representing the 'underdog,' " she says.
"With my legal background I began a corporation to assist individuals
and would-be entrepreneurs hoping to make their mark in life. I finance
them with no interest and watch their motivation grow into a viable living."
Monopoly also made a difference in the life and career of Phil Orbanes
of Danvers, Mass. He worked for Parker Brothers for 12 years - serving
as chief judge of the US and world championship tournaments during that
time - and is currently writing a history of the company. He now owns a
classic games company.
Everyone can learn life lessons from Monopoly, he says - especially how
to compromise and negotiate. "A player who is obnoxious or a bully or
browbeater gets shut out of trades," he notes. "But the best players
handle things with such finesse.... As a result, if you lose to them,
you feel like you've lost to a worthy opponent."
*Girls remember 'boys' toys'*
There are perhaps as many lessons as there are toys, but in some cases
children have learned about the ways of the world from the playthings
they did /not/ receive. This was especially true for the girls in past
decades who asked for toys they didn't get.
Instead of chemistry sets and telescopes (often thought of as most
suitable for boys), they were given dolls, carriages, and Easy Bake Ovens.
Ann Hatch of Texas, who grew up in the late 1950s and early '60s, agrees
that toys reserved for boys had an impact on young girls that was every
bit as great as the Barbie dolls so many owned.
"I've always loved space and science fiction, but girls just didn't get
spaceships and ray guns and other cool stuff like the boys did," she
says. "So when I had a son many years later, and Star Wars was at its
peak, I relived my childhood through my son's space toys, movies, and
Princess Leia."
Sharon Hussey of New York City is one of many female baby boomers who,
because they received only "girl toys," reserve their fondest childhood
memories for gifts given to their brothers or male friends.
"I loved playing with my brother's Erector set and chemistry set," says
Ms. Hussey. "I was more interested than he was in those things, but
those were considered boy things, and although my parents didn't
discourage me, they didn't think to get me my own."
Today, this experience factors into her job as a senior vice president
with Girl Scouts of the USA. "My work," she says, "is focused on making
sure that girls feel valued and empowered and that their sense of
curiosity and adventure is not constricted by gender."
As the tomboy daughter of toy-store owners, Amster didn't have to wait
for a brother or male friend to get the toy she wanted. She had the pick
of any product in her parents' business. One of her favorites, she
recalls, was a pair of Fanner 50 toy revolvers, which allowed her to
play shoot-'em-up games with the boys in the neighborhood. With her toy
gun, she could be "one of the guys."
*Their own wheels*
But somehow the division between toys most suitable for girls and for
boys didn't necessarily extend to wheeled vehicles. Women today,
therefore, are as apt to remember a favorite bike as men are.
Ms. Hussey viewed her bike as a surrogate horse when she was growing up
in Brooklyn: "I remember the feeling of both adventure and
self-sufficiency that came with being able to get around on one's own."
Bicycles weren't the only vehicles competing for girls' affections. Big
Wheels - those funky, low-slung tricycles - were also a big hit. Not the
least bit sedate - as most traditional "girls' toys" could be - plastic
Big Wheels practically screamed speed and excitement.
Liza Gutierrez-O'Neill of Boca Raton, Fla., was one of the few girls on
her street who owned a Big Wheel, and she recalls relishing the
daredevil instincts it brought out in her.
Heather Wilkins of West Hollywood, Calif., took part in Big Wheels
competitions against friends for the best "skid out - the longest black
mark on our parents' driveway." As an adult, she often recalls those
experiences, since she handles public relations for Razor Scream
Machines, the stylishly revamped "Big Wheels" of today.
Ms. Wilkins wants another generation to experience the same sense of
excitement and delight that she did when riding on her Big Wheel -
feelings that come from a toy that allows children to dream big and
expand their horizons while having a good time.
And that, say experts, is what the best toys are all about. They open up
a world of fun, a world of possibilities. That's why just the mention of
them has the power to make adults smile, even decades later.
-----------
FoIB mailing list -- Bits, Analysis, Digital Group Therapy
http://www.ianbell.com/foib.html
