Toys Through Time by Donna Marie

      As Brandi stood up to refill the coffee cups, she looked into the living room at her 10-year-old son, Lloyd. As usual, he was hunkered down in the recliner, eyes glued to his phone, fingers flying across the keys.

           “Uncle Jerry, I just don’t know what to do with him. He’s becoming an introvert. He doesn’t want to spend time outdoors. He doesn’t play basketball anymore. He doesn’t play with any of his friends.”

           “He doesn’t have any friends,” Uncle Jerry interjected.

           “He says he does, but they never actually spend any time together.”

           Jerry studied the child in the living room. He looked out the window. The sun was shining, there was a breeze blowing through the leaves on the trees. “Perfect weather for flying a kite,” he thought to himself, yet there sat Lloyd all alone in the living room fingers and eyes glued to that electronic device called a phone.

           “Do you have any plans for the weekend,” Jerry asked his great-niece.

           “Well…I thought about going to some of the local craft shows,” Brandi trailed off looking at her son. “But that’s not really Lloyd’s thing.”

           “Won’t hurt him any if you do some things you want to do for a change,” Jerry told her.

           “I know. But it wouldn’t be as fun if I had to listen to bickering and put up with stubbornness. I would just rather not go.”

           Jerry sat staring into the distance, smoothing down his beard with his work-worn hand.

           “Tell you what. You fix that pot roast I like for Sunday night dinner and invite me over and I’ll take Lloyd this weekend so you will be able to have the whole weekend to yourself.”

           Brandi squinted her eyes. “Just what are you up to?”

           “Don’t you trust me,” Jerry countered?

           Brandi studied the rugged old man. Uncle Jerry had been a rock in her life for as long as she could remember. He was there when her parents died in a car accident. Even though he was a bachelor, he took her in and treated her like a daughter, actually more like a precious daughter. 

He was there when her first date turned out to be a jerk. He taught her how to drive, he was there when Lloyd was born. He was there when Lloyd’s dad died. She knew he loved Lloyd and would take very good care of him. She was more afraid Lloyd would make Uncle Jerry feel old and out-of-touch. She really wanted a weekend to herself. Was she being selfish?

“No, you aren’t being selfish,” Uncle Jerry interrupted her thoughts.

He knew her so well. She smiled, “Ok, Lloyd can go with you this weekend. Where are you going? What are you going to do?”

“Never mind. You just go enjoy yourself. We will be fine. I’ll show him my favorite toy.”

“BUT MOM!” Lloyd nearly shouted.

Brandi knew there would be opposition when she told Lloyd about the arrangements. She just didn’t realize he would be so adamant about it.

“I thought you liked Uncle Jerry,” Brandi tried again.

“I do. You know I do. I just don’t want to spend the whole weekend with him. What are we going to do? Sit and watch that Lawrence guy again?”

Jerry had tried to introduce Lloyd to different eras and different music. Lloyd had not appreciated spending an hour watching Lawrence Welk.

“I don’t know. It’s a surprise. He wouldn’t tell me.”

After offering every argument and every excuse he could think of Lloyd’s shoulders slumped. Hanging his head he said in his most pitiful voice, “I am not going to win this one, am I?”

Brandi looked down into his lost my puppy dog expression and almost relented. But the thought of one free weekend was too great of an enticement to pass up.

In spite of her anticipation at a grown-up weekend with her friends, it was with a heavy heart and a hearty dose of guilt that she waved to Lloyd as he and Jerry drove down the road.

           As the miles ticked by, Jerry wondered how long it would take the young boy to start asking questions. Jerry bet himself it would be pretty soon. He might not know much about technology and all the latest gadgets but he knew Lloyd’s cell phone would be losing service pretty darn ….

           “What the heck? Where are we?” Lloyd asked suddenly looking up. Seeing nothing but fields on one side and trees on the other, he realized he wasn’t in the city anymore.

           “How soon to the city,” he asked. “I can’t play my games.”

           “W-e-l-l,” Jerry replied drawing out the word as long as possible, “Here’s the thing. We are almost there. And I can pretty much guarantee that phone won’t work.”

           “WHAT? NO, when Mom told me I had to come with you, she didn’t tell me it would be out in the middle of nowhere.”

           “She told you that you HAD to come with me,” Jerry asked, disappointment in his voice.

           “Kind of yeah. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” Lloyd apologized. “I really do like spending time with you, just at home.”

           “I want you to have a good time,” Jerry told him.

           “Not likely, clear out here,” Lloyd mumbled.

           “I’ll make a deal with you. You spend this weekend with me, doing things I want to do and then you can pick a weekend and I will spend it doing anything you want to do.”

           “Anything?”

           “Yes – as long as it is age-appropriate and not illegal,” Jerry chuckled. “And approved by your mother. You can even try to teach me to play one of those video games you like so much. BUT – you can’t complain or whine and neither will I.

           “Ok, that sounds fair,” Lloyd said slowly thinking it through. “I agree.”

           “Good, just around that corner is our destination.”

           Lloyd sat up straighter so he could see out the windshield better. He saw fields of what looked like white balls on sticks. As Uncle Jerry went around the corner, Lloyd saw a small house with a barn. There were chickens just walking around freely in the yard.

           Pulling up in front of the house, Uncle Jerry got out, stretched. He took a deep breath and said, “Welcome to where I grew up.”

           “You lived here? But there’s nothing here.”

           “There’s plenty here. You just haven’t seen it yet. Come on, a friend of mine and his wife stocked the house with food. Let’s find something to eat. Hamburgers sound good right about now.”

           “Are we the only ones here?” Lloyd asked looking around.

           “The others will show up from time to time,” Jerry responded.

           After showing Lloyd how to build a small fire pit safely away from anything that might catch fire and explaining the importance of fire awareness, the two sat eating hamburgers and s’mores.

           “Hello! Hello, do I smell marshmallows?”

           “Aunt Bedith,” Lloyd said standing up to give her a hug. “Where did you come from?”

           “Jerry called and said you would be here so I walked through the cotton field.”

           “That white stuff is cotton? Like in my t-shirt? I’ve never seen a cotton field before now,” Lloyd told her.

           “Never seen one? Why when I was your age, me and the older ones would walk these field chopping cotton to exchange for food to help feed our family.”

           “You had a job at my age,” Lloyd asked, the shock coming through his tone.

           While Bedith and Lloyd had been talking, Jerry reached over and picked up a stick and began drawing in the dirt.

           Lloyd watched him and waited for him to say something but Jerry just kept silently drawing in the dirt and then brushing it away, then drawing again and brushing it away.

           Lloyd couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “What are you doing?”

           “I’m learning,” Jerry replied.

           Lloyd leaned over and looked at the ground.  “That’s just the alphabet in the dirt,” he said.

           “Dirt? Why this is my school.”

           “Are you trying to trick me,” Lloyd asked skeptically?

           “Of course not.” Bedith sat down beside Jerry with a stick of her own. She too began writing and drawing in the dirt. Jerry used his stick, to draw a big square box in the dirt. 

           “What do you see Lloyd?”

           “It’s a box drawn in the dirt,” Lloyd replied.

Spreading his arms wide, Jerry looked at Lloyd. “This is my school.” Pointing down to the square box, he said, “This is my chalkboard and paper.”

           “I don’t get it,” Lloyd said.

           Handing Lloyd a stick, Bedith began writing in the dirt. A – B – C – D. Jerry copied what she wrote. 

           “My sister was my teacher. Bedith taught me how to write like this.”

           “In the dirt? Why didn’t she just use paper?”

           Jerry laughed. “We didn’t have paper just laying around. But I wanted to learn to read and write. When Bedith got home from school she would tell me we had to hurry up and get our chores done before dark so I could have school.”

           “Why before dark?”

           Bedith chuckled, “You can’t see to write in the dirt once it gets dark.”

           Bedith, Jerry and Lloyd stayed out until dark writing letters and numbers in the dirt. Jerry showed him how to use his foot to erase his "chalkboard” so he could start again. They had all kinds of contests. Who could write the neatest with the stick, who could write the smallest and largest. Who could draw the best chicken. By the time all the contests ended Lloyd thought it was pretty even.

           “My brothers and sisters and I played baseball in the dirt lot over there. Actually, there were so many of us running around this yard that most of the yard was dirt. There was more dirt than grass,” Jerry laughed.

           Lloyd was surprised when his great Aunt Laura pulled up in the driveway. This was turning in the one of those big family get-togethers.

           Lloyd noticed all the chickens were heading to the barn. “Why are all the chickens heading to that small barn?”

           “That’s not a barn, it is a chicken coop. It is where the chickens roost and sleep for the night.”

           Suddenly Jerry started laughing. “You need to ask Laura about getting chicken eggs,” Jerry said still laughing.

           “Why,” Lloyd questioned when Bedith started laughing too.

           “Hens do not like to be disturbed when they are sitting on their nests. It was Laura’s job to collect the eggs.”

“How do you do that,” Lloyd asked curiously.

Laura sat down in the empty lawn chair. “You take something with you, like a basket, anything to put the eggs in. Then you reach in the nest and take the eggs. BUT just like Lloyd said, hens don’t want to be disturbed while on their nests. They will come after you, trying to beat you with their wings.”

Laughing Bedith added, “Laura was whipped, flogged, and spurred more times than she could count.”

           The adults showed Lloyd how to make sure the fire was completely out before heading into the house. After tucking Lloyd in for the night, Jerry called Brandi. He assured her that Lloyd was fine.

           Early the next morning Lloyd barely had his eyes open as he stumbled into the kitchen and sat down.           

           “Why are we up so early,” Lloyd asked grumpily.

“The day’s a wastin’,” Jerry replied. Grabbing some string Jerry called, “Come on, let’s go see what’s going on with the creek. It’s time for fishing.”

They dug around in the dirt looking for worms. Sitting on a log, Lloyd learned how to tie a string on a stick and cast it out into the creek. He was thrilled when he caught his first fish.

Lloyd wasn’t sure when Uncle Bobby showed up, but there he was teaching him how to draw a big circle in the dirt to play marbles. 

“Marbles,” Lloyd scoffed. It’s just glass balls rolling around in the dirt. He learned that your biggest marble was your shooter marble. He learned that it took a lot of skill and concentration to flick the marble out of his fist with his thumb to try and hit as many marbles out of the ring as possible.

String and marbles? Lloyd wondered what other interesting things his aunt and uncles would tell him.

Lloyd turned at the sound of plastic rattling around. He saw his great Aunt Lois walking up the other side of the creek.

“Hi, Aunt Lois. What are you doing?”

Lloyd watched as Lois slipped her shoes and socks off. She went to the creek and filled a bucket with water. Then she got another bucket and filled it with dirt. She sat down with her knees bent and her feet out in front of her. She started packing dirt around her feet. She would then get the dirt wet and pack some more. 

Without saying a word, Lois placed the buckets between Lloyd and herself. Lloyd reached over and copied what Lois was doing. Soon they each had their feet buried in hardened dirt. 

Carefully Lois slid her feet out of the mound of dirt. Lloyd did the same. Then Lois showed Lloyd how to smooth out the top and add towers and turrets so the structures looked like miniature castles.

Next Lois stood up and started toward the creek. “Come on, we need to go find some occupants.”

“What,” Lloyd asked totally confused.

At the edge of the creek, Lloyd watched Lois catch a couple of frogs. 

“Get your frogs,” she urged Lloyd. It took Lloyd a little while to find and catch a couple of frogs.

“Why can’t we just go buy some occupants? What are we going to do with these now?”

“We didn’t have a lot of extra money and certainly not enough to buy animals just to have them. Besides we have all the frogs we can find right here in our creek.”

“So here we are with our occupants. Let’s show them their new home.”

Lloyd laughed as Lois placed her frogs in the mud structure and said, “Welcome to your new castle.”

Lloyd put his frogs in the castle he made and said, “I think I will call you King Arthur and Queen…who was his queen?”

“Guinevere,” Lois replied.

Lloyd had been so busy building frog castles and looking for frogs he did not notice the sky had turned cloudy and the wind had picked up.

Right then, the sky seemed to burst open and rain came pouring out.

“We better run,” Lloyd yelled. 

“Why? Do you think you are going to melt?”

“But it’s raining,” Lloyd complained.

“What’s a little rain,” Jerry said, “Just Mother Nature sneezing.”

           Jerry watched as Lloyd spent the next hour making mud pies, dodging raindrops, jumping in puddles, and making sure the frogs escaped from the collapsing frog castles.

           Lloyd fell asleep on the couch exhausted from an active day of playing outside.

           Sunday dawned bright and clear. The air smelled clean and fresh after the rain shower.

           At the breakfast table, Lloyd asked Jerry what they were going to do that day.

           “Well, we need to head home soon to make it before dinner time. You have school tomorrow and your aunts and uncles have to go to work.”

           “You guys were really poor weren’t you,” Lloyd asked? “You didn’t have paper or phones or toys.”

“Poor? Well by society’s definition we most certainly were, but not toys? We had lots of siblings to play with, a mother who loved us and one of the best toys in the world.”

“Can’t we stay longer,” Lloyd begged?

           “Not this time, but we can always come back.”

           Brandi felt her nerves tighten when she heard the sound of the tires on the gravel driveway. The screen door slammed and the tension slithered throughout her body. Footsteps pounding into the kitchen matched the excited, “Mom? Mom, where are you?”

           Wait? What? Excitement? After practically being forced to go with his great Uncle Jerry, Brandi thought for sure Lloyd would be full of resentment upon his return.

           Lloyd ran into the kitchen and dropped a bag on the table. He began talking a mile a minute. 

           “Mom, we fished and played marbles and did all kinds of things. Look,” Lloyd said excitedly, “Uncle Jerry showed me his favorite toy. He even gave me some! Oh, and I saw Aunt Bedith and Aunt Lois and Uncle Bobby too.”

           “So what is Uncle Jerry’s favorite toy?” Looking down at the bag, Brandi’s eyes widened with surprise. “That looks like…is that…?”

           “Yep,” Lloyd interrupted. “It’s dirt. And guess what Mom? There’s plenty more in case I run out! Mom, mom, are you listening?”

           “I’m sorry, what did you say? Just dirt?”

           “It’s not just dirt Mom. It can be a piece of paper, and a chalkboard, and a place to play marbles. And it can be frog castles and oh, can I go next door to see if Mrs. Champion will let Remington play? I want to see if he knows how to play marbles. And then I want to see if she will let me show Maddy how to make frog castles. I think Maddy would like frog castles, don’t you? So can I? Huh, can I go over there?”

           Laughing Brandi hugged her son, “Yes, of course, you can go over. Remember be polite.”

           Brandi had worried that Lloyd would find the old man, well just that, old. Out-of-date. Out-of-touch.

Uncle Jerry and his siblings had grown up extremely poor. They literally had nothing to play with, but the dirt. But they had each other and they created adventures. Jerry had shared some of that adventure with Lloyd. Planted the seed of creativity. He had shared his favorite childhood toy, dirt, and had shown Lloyd the best toy ever. The gift of imagination.