Pickles by Brian Crane for January 18, 2016

When I was a youngster, at times my maternal grandfather and I used to make some things in his carpentry shop. Still have one or two of the creations though: tow truck and rattlesnake.

Grandpa wants Nelson to be a chip off the old block.

When I was little my dad would give me a bock of wood, a hammer and a bunch of nails. I’d sit on the basement floor and be just as happy as if I had good sense.

What’s brown and sticky?

a stick

we were very poor and they cut the pockets out of my pants so i would have something to play with.

On my ’’plike’’ farm I used different size rocks to be cows, horses, goats, chickens, & etc. I also made whirllie gigs (like lawn darts) out of corn cobs with chicken feathers stuck in the end. Never knew that we were poor back then as we had as much as any one else.<><me

t jacobs—-I LOVED THAT!!!! ROFLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not much imagination, Ear ?I guess, that’s why you grew up to be a blockhead.

My Mom sometimes talks about when she was small living in Arkansas….when it rained, her and her sister would build a playhouse out of the gumbo (clay). They would have chairs and stoves and beds, little plates and bowls, pots and pans. Then when the sun came out all would be baked hard and they would have a wonderful “house” to play with until the next rain!

Think Pinewood Derby…

When I was a kid I got a banana split from the (not good humor) ice cream truck. It came in a little blue boat-shaped plastic dish. So I took that, my father’s shirt boxes and some of the hard cardboard pants hanger and made piers that I could sail my little blue boat around on our deep green rug. Had a blast, and I was so proud of my creation!

It’s a Congrave Cube.

You and me both, Earl.

xxx

he left out the part about having to walk to school -uphill both ways

Give kids a large cardboard box and watch the number of creative ways they can use it to play. Great prop to stimulate their imagination and inventiveness.

Hopefully, Earl had a friend with more imagination. When my mom was a kid in The Depression, she said her mother could fold a newspaper and cut out the most elaborate paper dolls that stretched out all connected. Grandma also could take a towel and fold it up in such way to look like she had twin baby dolls in a blanket. People had to use their imaginations back then.

.“. . .would see a big blocky wood thingy exactly one way: something to whack each other over the head with.”.Unbreakable toys are useful for breaking other toys.

One of the many, many things I love about Earl is how he avoids the temptation to present himself as better than he was..(The older I get, the better I was.)

and you don’t still XD