The Marvellous Toy

I was at the Second Hand store today and I just couldn’t resist a purchase. Like many things that I buy there, I have no real use for it, my life wouldn’t feel any kind of emptiness if I didn’t have it and I might just be better off without it. So, of course I had to buy it.

I had been noticing it for about two weeks now and watched it move about the store on a day to day basis. I suspect that there are people like me that will pick it up with the intention to buy it and carry it around for a while before common sense allows them put it down, reluctantly. I did the same thing a week ago, so I know whereof I speak. I should mention that it started out at $2 and today it was 25 cents. How could I not buy it?

It is some kind of advertising piece that has a geometric shape and a silver cog just above a sticker that says “The Learning Journey” with picture of a path winding through a field and over a hill just under the setting sun. I suppose it could be a rising sun. There are two buttons on the base that make the cog turn. One allows it to turn only when you are pressing the button and the other just has the cog remain rotating.

It is kind of silly and kind of a dumb bit of advertising when you think of it. Like I say, I have no use for it and neither does anyone else or it wouldn’t be at the Mennonite Thrift Store. Not too long ago I would have believed it to be a missing part from a crashed space ship that the aliens were searching the planet for. Perhaps it might have been a special key from a secret government installation that would not only save the installation, but millions of innocent lives. Imagine I found it at a thrift store!

What it actually is today, is the key to a doorway of the imagination for Hurricane and Tornado. They will pick it up and ask what it is and I will ask them what they think it’s for. We will spend some time making up silly things that it could be, laughing and laughing as the ideas get crazier. Then we will put it down and go on to some other silly nonsense.

Whenever I pass on, one of them will be helping sort through the debris that is my life and come across this stupid little cog. Perhaps a tear will form in the corner of his eye and he’ll say “I think I will keep this to remember Poppa by.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2RJj46DZLs

The Marvelous Toy

When I was just a wee little lad,
Full of health and joy,
My father homeward came one night
And gave to me a toy.
A wonder to behold it was
With many colors bright
And the moment I laid eyes on it,
It became my heart's delight.

Refrain:
It went "Zip" when it moved, and "Bop" when it stopped,
And "Whirrr" when it stood still.
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.

The first time that I picked it up
I had a big surprise
Cause right on the bottom were two big buttons
That looked like big green eyes
I first pushed one and then the other,
Then I twisted it's lid
And when I set it down again, here is what it did:

(Refrain)

It first marched left, and then marched right
And then marched under a chair
And when I looked where it had gone
It wasn't even there
I started to cry, but my daddy laughed
'Cause he knew that I would find,
When I turned around my marvelous toy
Would be chugging from behind.

(Refrain)

The years have gone by too quickly it seems,
I have my own little boy
And yesterday I gave to him
My marvelous little toy:
His eyes nearly popped right out of his head
And he gave a squeal of glee!
Neither one of us knows just what it is
But he loves it just like me!

It still goes... (refrain)