My son got hooked into Transformers recently and I one upped him better by introducing to him season 1 of Transformers G1. At Youtube he watches clips of the Transformers Live action movie and refers to this as "the real" Transformers. Recently I got surprised with how he has commandeered an old diecast toy of his and started referring to it as Optimus Prime.
This act of my son of using his imagination in substituting a different toy for the toy he wanted brought back fond memories for me. I remember I did the exact same thing with some of my toys. Whatever the "in" cartoon or show was at that time and I didn't have the toy of, I substituted another toy and used my imagination.
One time when Airwolf was all the rage I built one out of Lego's. Of course I just had enough pieces plus my imagination to make it look like the Airwolf helicopter. And because I didn't have enough pieces what also came out was a mixed colored Airwolf replica. I remember some kids in the neighborhood I was playing with being mean and teasing me that the Airwolf helicopter I made looked ugly and shoddy. Although I was hurting inside for being mocked I just laughed with them to hide the pain that I knew I was being teased for not having good toys. I even remember defending my creation by saying that it was because my version had the dazzle camouflage on, that answer just brought more teasing to my end. Some kids can really be mean.
Those who did the teasing were mostly rich kids so I'm not surprised why they looked down on me. Nice toys that I got on my birthday or Christmas was something that they could easily get on any day of the week. The sad thing about that however is that if you get things you want all the time, you end up not appreciating it.
I take the case of a meal at McDonald's, its not something we can afford all the time so whenever we eat there its special for us. Some rich folks I know can't stand McDonald's because they eat it all the time. I'm happy that a simple meal like that is still something that my body considers as a "treat" and still leaves me satisfied. This just goes to show that everything should be taken in moderation.
Not related to moderation anymore, If my son thinks that that toy of his is fun, wait till he sees this Leader Class Optimus Prime we bought for him on his birthday.
As an adult, I don't look forward to my birthdays anymore, in fact I can't easily tell how old I am without having to do some mental arithmetic. The joy however in opening presents during birthdays and Christmas lies in watching our son open his. As that old credit card commercial goes, the experience of watching the expression of pure joy in his face is Priceless.
