A Nostalgic Look at Toys and Games

You've probably heard this joke before:

A man is waiting for a bus and sees a little boy playing with some dog droppings on the sidewalk. A fireman comes walking by and asks the boy "What are you doing?" The kid replies "I'm making a fireman." The fireman walks off, insulted. Along comes a police officer. Appalled to see what the kid is playing with, he also asks "What are you doing?" The boy tells him "I'm making a policeman." The officer walks away in a huff. The man waiting for the bus walks up to the boy and tells him "Young man, I'm a lawyer. If I asked you what you're doing, would you tell me you're making a lawyer?" The kid looks at the man and without batting an eye replies "Oh no---I don't have enough poop for that!"

The point is, throughout history, children have played with whatever they could find to keep themselves busy, and realizing this, a big-time industry has developed around the demand for children's toys and games. In spite of all this history behind it, the toy industry hasn't always been accurate when figuring out what kids will play with. Many parents have purchased high tech, big money items and spent quite a while putting them together, only to find out their child was having more fun playing with the gadget's empty box.

I probably don't have to remind anyone that Christmas is only about nine months away, and at this very moment, parents are losing sleep trying to figure out if junior would rather have another video game or the "Stuck In Iraq Sam" military action figure that comes with its own exploding helicopter. Such decisions give parents white hair. Perhaps a look back at toys would help them decide.

Toys and games not only keep young ones entertained and busy, they can also learn important behavior patterns from them. Educational toys can be fun, and fun toys can be educational. There are places where lines were once drawn to pigeonhole toys as being for girls or boys. This was useful since it let girls play with dolls and make-believe houses in order to develop their domestic skills, and boys had guns and military equipment so they could learn how to kill each other and destroy the world when they grew up.