Timeless Toys

Imagine the sound of a HUGE motor of your garbage truck, roaring in right front of you.  Try to imitate it's sound.  Go ahead, do it out loud.  You stop in front of the house and load up their garbage, wondering, 'what treasures are they throwing away?'  With just a twitch of your finger, you push the button and all that stuff mashes into mush.  Power, Baby!  And you get a whiff and wrinkle your nose.  Smell it?  You hit the gas and rev up that engine as you go to the next house.  Put on the brakes to slow down and stop this massive machine.  As you hit the brakes, they squeal with a high-pitch that makes you wince.  Can you make that sound?

If you followed along, you just entered the world of a 5 year-old, playing with his garbage truck.  It's a sensorial experience!

When I was a kid, we collected and played for hours with our Matchbox cars.  Matchbox cars came in little boxes that actually look like matchboxes.  They were printed on the big sides with pictures of their car or truck.  Solid blue on the narrow sides – almost like you could strike a match on the side of the box.

Playing with cars and trucks is natural for a kid.  Why?

As I contemplated the value in playing with cars and trucks, an old familiar world opened to me.

Like the story above, I remember making the sounds, smelling the smells and doing the activities represented by that match-boxed sized truck.  My imagination soared.  Each car opened a new world.  Each having its own sights, smells and actions.  Race Cars.  Dump Trucks.  Animal Feed Trucks.  Greyhound Buses.  Steamrollers.  Limousines.  And even a Milk Truck (for those who remember milk delivered right to your back door).  Oooh, with those cars and trucks I traveled all over the neighborhood without leaving our living room!  I dreamed doing different jobs all in one day! 

With just a touch of imagination, those cars and trucks were a portal into other worlds!

You can access that imagination!  It's there.  Maybe just a little rusty.  Visualization is a powerful tool world class athletes and high performers use consistently.  They visualize not only winning at the end of the race, but more importantly, they visualize the tough points DURING the race.    

I learned visualization skills at a very young age.  With my Matchbox cars.

Early in my adult life, Mom insisted we get stuff out of the house.  I went upstairs into my old room and found a carrying case of those Matchbox cars.  To my delight, there they were.  All those magical worlds, neatly packed in the carrying case.  Many of the cars in their original boxes! 

Guess what?  I still have them!

This past Christmas, I asked my daughter what to get for our youngest grandchild.  "Loves cars and trucks!"  Can you imagine how DELIGHTED I was to get trucks?  Not just any trucks.  We got Tonka Trucks.  Remember those?  Well made.  Metal. 

Did you know Tonka Trucks were originally made in Minnetonka, Minnesota?  My hometown is the birthplace of Tonka Trucks!  Okay, second bit of trivia.   'Tonka' in the Lakota (Sioux) language means 'Big.'  Yep, we played with Big Trucks!

Indeed, Trucks are Timeless Toys

The most important gift we can give our children are character-building experiences.  And it goes both ways!  Sometimes, we need to get on the floor and play with cars and trucks.  Let them guide US through their magical imagination, opening our minds to worlds we don't see right in front of our eyes!

Learn Deeply, my friend!