Lego Celebrates 50 Years of Building Entertainment

As a child, Legos provided me hours of entertainment. I spent hours building houses, platforms and constructing castles where my fantasies would play out for even days.

The Lego is still out there. Celebrating its 50^th anniversary, the Lego originally came from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means to play well. In Latin it could translate into "I put together." In 1958, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen developed the moderm day brick that interlocked with other pieces of different shapes and sizes. Despite design changes over the years and additions of new pieces, bricks from the early releases will interlock still with today's pieces.

The first set of Legos I received was simple. It was a massive jug that was filled with all kinds of the several simple building pieces. It included two flat platforms from which to build many of my skyscraping designs. As a bonus, the jug included two little men that I could play with in my houses or even my motorcycles that were added in as well. It also came with some directions that helped me build various buildings and which pieces I needed to use. However, at five or six years old, what child really wants to read how to make something when they can use their imagination and build whatever their head concocts.

Another one of my favorite sets was a truck set. Inside came with of course all the standard lego pieces, but nothing compared to the jug mentioned above. However, this set came with wheels as well so I could construct trucks and cars and even a semi-truck. It was a nice addition to the platforms and houses I could build with the jug pieces.

At age 16, though only 21 now, I was still playing with Legos. However, the concepts I came up with were much more mature and concrete. I had built a design that included my name spelled out right in the center in calligraphy using the little two holed pieces. Once the design was complete, I went over it with a clear spray glue to preserve it.