Toy Trilogy Part I

Jason gets a big kick out of how my parents save everything, and when I say everything, I mean everything. My mom does go through spurts where she tries to throw things away, but my dad would never get rid of anything. In fact, when we were moving Jason’s mom to Katy, my dad showed up with his truck and took everything she was getting rid of to his house. So it was no surprise when I had the following conversation with them on the phone the other night. (Yes, they were both on the phone with me.)

*If you don’t know my parents the part of my dad should be read with an East Texas accent and the part of my mom reads best with a Deep East Texas/grew up an hour from Louisiana accent.

Me: “The babies are really enjoying JR’s swing. I’ll have to bring it with me when I come.”
My dad: “You know we have that old swing of yours up in the attic. I can get that out for them.”
My mom: “Oh, John! We can’t put the babies in that old thing. I wouldn’t even let Foxy sit in that!” (Foxy is the 3 pound Pomeranian)
My dad: “Well, that was a really nice swing. I know it’s up there, I bet it still works.”
My mom: “I saw that thing the other day, it doesn’t have a seat belt or anything, I can’t believe we would put you in that thing. It’s a wonder you didn’t just fall in the floor.”
My dad: “Well, that was the best swing they made. Remember how we would wind it up, I think it even played music.”
Me: “That’s okay, Daddy, I’ll just bring the one we have here.”

This is not an unusual conversation, since everything has been saved for all these years, seems like all my old toys get brought up at one time or another. So, for your blogging enjoyment, today is the first day in a new trilogy of…. “Jan’s Old Toys”.

Today’s Edition: Toys that Shouldn’t Have Been Saved All These Years:

Toy #1- The afore mentioned swing.

Here it is in its prime. Obviously this picture was taken around Halloween. For those of you who have known me since our Kingwood days, you can see the swing was in the kitchen and that's the dinning room in the background. Check out that chandelier, wall paper, and red shag carpet. Woo!

And here's the swing today. Not kidding, my dad started winding it up to prove to me that it still worked, and how he could brace the legs so the swing wouldn't be so wobbly. I have to agree with my mom on this one...I wouldn't let Foxy swing in it.


Toy #2-Radio Flyer Wagon

Here it is today in my dad's barn. When we were in China and JR was a baby my dad kept telling me how he couldn't wait to get out my wagon and pull JR around in it. We came home from China and went to the family Easter party where my parents saw Cousin Caleb had this....

Brand new, nice, shiny, plastic wagon with back rests, under seat storage, and cup holders. JR got the same wagon later that week. But as you can see from the previous picture, we still kept my wagon.

Toys #3 and 4- Baby This 'N That and Dancerella

I tried to add Baby This 'N That to the list because I couldn't actually find her, I could only find the box. But I was quickly told that Baby This 'N That was with the Christmas decorations. Then, I wanted to add Dancerella to the list because she had a dead bug and spider webs in her hair. Nope, my dad started cleaning her up as fast as he could. So, then, I said I was adding them to the list because I have 3 boys, and none of them are going to be interested in playing with them. My dad had an answer for that too. I'm not kidding, he said, "Well, you never know they might have some girls of their own."
Well, even so, I'm still adding them to my list.

Tune in tomorrow when we discuss the toy that were worth keeping.