98 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
98 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
Hula Hoops and Tinker Toys
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Copyright (c) 1995, Nancy VanWormer
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All rights reserved
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Hula Hoops and Tinker Toys
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by Nancy VanWormer
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When I was small, we didn't have this problem. It wasn't
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available to us (mere children) and if it were, we wouldn't
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have had the money anyway. Then one day, in school, no less,
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we were introduced to them. By our teacher.
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Oh, the glory of them! They tried to show us that only
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"stupid" people played with hula hoops and tinker toys. But,
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in doing so, they made it most attractive. Their so-called
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bad boys were the cutest and most popular. The girls were the
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prettiest. They showed them having great fun, while nerdish
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(even back in those days) kids looked on disaprovingly.
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The nerds got good grades and listened to their parents.
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The hula hoop crowd, slowly disintegrated into the scum of
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society.
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What? From merely playing with hula hoops and tinker toys?
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How can it be so? They have already showed us the joys of
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playing with them. We couldn't ask our parents, because they
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didn't know anything about it.
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So we grew. And as we matured, we became more enchanted with
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hula hoops and tinker toys, until the day finally came when
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we could play with them ourselves.
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What a great day. These toys opened new worlds to us! We saw
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every day life in a whole new way. Mysteries of the universe
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were being unveiled to us.
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The funny part was that we shared them. We never stole, or
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killed somebody over our toys. There was always somebody
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willing to share with us! We were always willing to share
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with others. It was like a secret family. We were brothers
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and sisters together.
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As we grew our tastes grew also. We wanted more advanced
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toys. Toys made for adults. They were a bit more expensive,
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and harder to master, but we did it. We were in control.
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Then one day, as young adults, some of us "grew up". We
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realized that we could not play with our hula hoops and
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tinker toys forever, and that there were other things in life
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to do. Things that were more important maybe? So we slowly
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weaned ourselves from our toys, and developed.
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And as we did, we watched the few that decided that hula
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hoops and tinker toys were what they wanted most out of life.
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They stayed children, playing with their toys, while the rest
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of us went on to better things. It is funny, now, when we
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look at those lost children, we still see the innocence in
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them, but it is surrounded by an old person's body. They
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seemed to have aged outwardly much faster than we did. Oh,
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they still have the same beards and long hair, but it is
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peppered with grey and started to thin out. They still wear
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the same style clothes, I wonder where they buy them. The
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years of playing with hula hoops and tinker toys have taken
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their toll.
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Now we have children of our own. Our children don't want to
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play with our toys, they have their own, more advanced and
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technological versions of our toys. They have roller blades
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and boomboxes.
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The toys are different, dangerous. They were made to be
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dangerous. They have a power over people and are even
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capable of killing them. Their sole purpose is to hurt.
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They were made by different people than made our hula hoops
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and tinker toys. They were made for a different reason.
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The kids are different. They are not playing with their toys
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the same way that we did. They are very protective of them,
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and will do anything to get more. They lie, cheat, steal and
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even kill to be able to play with their roller blades and
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boomboxes.
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We are scared for our children in a way that our parents
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never were. We played with hula hoops and tinker toys, and we
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know the power that is in them. But our children, our babies,
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are playing with something more potent. Can they handle it?
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We handled it, but it was a different time, with different
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kids, and different toys.
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We have to take care not to push them towards it like we
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were. After all, these are not hula hoops and tinker toys,
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the "toys of choice" of the peace generation. These are
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roller blades and boomboxes!!
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