where it all began…
One of my earliest memories was getting a tin of Lincoln Logs as a Christmas present when I was about 5 years old. I didn’t know what they were. I hadn’t asked for them. I was less than excited to receive them. It was certainly no 6 Million Dollar Man with interchangeable arms with weapons stored in secret compartments. To be honest I already had a 6 Million Dollar Man from the year before.
I suspect the gift was last minute and mostly bought due to it’s size and unique packaging. It was a “big” gift. It would also be the last toy I would open and really explore later after the high of the holidays had passed and the other gifts were either broken or deemed “boring”.
I think the initial disappointment of the toy was in it’s simplicity. I just didn’t understand what it was I was supposed to be doing with a bunch of notched brown dowels and flat green sticks. My Dad had to show me how to assemble them. I was still unimpressed until he showed me how to use the different sized logs to leave openings for doors and windows. Now we were getting somewhere!
By the time we got to installing the flat green sticks, aka the roof, and the notched block that would become the chimney, I was decidedly more impressed with the whole endeavor.
I spent a lot of hours off and on over the next couple of years remaking the same three designs. I only had so many logs unfortunately. I also have two younger brothers so eventually the logs and sticks started disappearing making it increasingly harder to build anything of real stature. And then they faded into obscurity and distant memories.
It was the beginning of many gifts that would require assembly and problem solving over the years. Erector sets, model cars, backyard rockets, just to name a few. It wasn’t until I looked back as an adult and realized the pattern and what it was that engaged me. I had two sons of my own and we tried to make sure they had similar toys to play with growing up besides the usual fare of electronics and gift cards.
I’m a builder for a reason.
-Gipson-