Diana and I got to talking about Lego the other day, because kids with different developmental strengths and weaknesses all tend to be drawn to the bricks at some point. This got me to thinking about how not typical I was with my treasured sets.
I'll never forget going to my daytime babysitter for the first time when I was in grade school, to find an enormous box of loose Lego bricks. There were thousands, and I was completely horrified... they weren't in their original boxes! I couldn't tell you what year I got my first set (I'm pretty sure these were from my early grade school days), but in those days the sets came in boxes with flip-open front faces and there were clear compartments inside for the bricks (presumably this was in part a store merchandising technique). Every last brick had a place, and when I precisely assembled the kit per the instructions, every piece went back to its place.
When I watch Simon play with his cars, carefully lining them up and exploring the mechanical ability of some of them, I can't help but think of me and these Lego sets. I had the command base, the rocket base, and the amazingly huge Galaxy Explorer ship. The command base in particular had a lot of moving parts. The memory of these is so incredibly vivid. I have to hand it to my family members who bought these, because I know they weren't cheap in late 70's/early 80's dollars, but they're the thing that really started to ignite my imagination.
I also had a police station, which I really loved. In fact, I remember being so locked into opening and closing the doors and shutters on it, which leads me to believe Simon and I may have had similar issues growing up.
Today I have two sets, both of which are obviously intended mostly for adults if for the price alone. The Grand Carousel is a beautiful model, but I don't think it has seen the light of day in at least three years. I've been thinking lately about building it. I also have the Red Cargo Train, which has been around our Christmas tree now for three years. Last Christmas we had to remove it early because Simon couldn't tear himself away from it, and kept breaking one of the cars apart causing meltdowns. We'll try again next year.
I still go back to the rigid organization though. I was probably a weird kid, or maybe I have more in common with my son than I thought. I guess I didn't care if it was someone else's bricks. I remember building this huge ship that looked very much like the Argo from the cartoon Star Blazers. (I remember the opening theme. I wonder if that show would be good today? I remember it as a predecessor to more popular Japanese anime like Robotech.)
Simon had a handful of Duplo, starting with a bucket of bricks and a zoo set (yes, I cringed a little when combining them). He seems to be branching out a little and using the bricks around his wood train tracks and such, so maybe he won't be as obsessive as I was.
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