Old toys for a new kid.

This toy chest was built by my dad many years ago and was intended to be a truckbed box, but it turned out way too nice for that and worked as a storage chest in the living room our tv sat on for a long time.  When we were cleaning out our childhood toy boxes, most of our stuff ended up in what we jokingly referred to as the "toy coffin."  For several years, it's been sealed in a storage shed at my dad's place.  On one of his trips out here to Tennessee, he brought it back with him, toys and all....ironically, in the back of his truck.  Molly was still a bit too young for most of these toys, so I just picked out a couple things at a time for her here and there.

The other day, I felt the time was right to open up the old toy chest for Molly.  I asked her to go to the play room, close her eyes and I opened it up.  She could hear the creak of the lid and I said "open your eyes!"   She looked like a kid in a toy store...grinning big, eyes wide and she whispered, "It's beautiful...wow!...for me?"  I said "Yes, it's all for you, if you want it."

She doesn't know that most of the toys are 30-40 years old by now.  They are just as much fun now as they were then.  There are classic Fisher-Price, Playskool, Sesame Street, Weebles, Raggedy Ann, Barbies, dolls of all sizes, teddy bears, puppets....even some hair bobbles, kid size belts and fancy shoe laces.  They run on kid power and imagination, no batteries or electronics here.

Holding an airplane, looking at a Bert puppet.

She grabbed her Raggedy Ann doll from her tent when she discovered this handmade Raggedy Ann purse from the mid-70s.

Cookie Monster's googly-eyed expression makes me laugh as she has him in a strangle hold.

Playing with the airport, cottage, A-frame house and village.  Gosh, the memories I have of the times I played with these as a kid...they all came rushing back to me again.

For the last few days, she goes in to the play room and I listen to her setting up the elaborate scenes and dramas the little people are having in their tiny world.  Her imagination is wildly vivid and excited as she plays and plays.  I get to play with her too and relive some good memories of my own from long ago.