A Tough One: ‘50s Memories Meet ‘90s Toys
The week between Christmas and New Year’s provides the acid test for toys and gifts.
It’s one thing to rip open a package on Christmas morning, smile wanly, and say, “How lovely!”
It’s quite another matter to actually play with, use, or enjoy what Santa brought.
At my house this was the Christmas for computer games and electric trains.
Myst in one package, an American Flyer engine under the tree.
In the week after the holidays, the generations were playing tug-of-war.
My childhood memories of steam whistles and track vs. the preferred gift of the 1990s - CD-ROM.
On Christmas Day the family was dutifully rearranged to accommodate these playthings of different eras.
In one corner, the figure-eight layout of the toy train was laid out.
Across the room in the opposite corner, the Mac with Myst.
For me, this was no contest.
I recalled Christmas Day 1995, the year my grandfather led me out of the bedroom to see a train set around the Christmas tree.
It had real smoke and a choo-choo sound that was just too unbelievably neat.
The memory of this Christmas of 40 years ago led me to Dick Banks, owner of Great Northern Trains on 40th Avenue in Spokane.
Dick is 76. He has two huge garages full of old trains, including every Lionel locomotive every made.
His American Flyer wall offered me a way to reconstruct a bit of my childhood for the benefit of my 10-year-old son.
“But trains are really for old guys like you now,” Dick said.
I wondered if he was right as I wrapped a set of electric switches and stuffed them under the tree.
The computer gear arrived via overnight mail.
The origin of this stuff remains fuzzy, since I called the 24-hour hotline at the MacWarehouse.
A perky young woman took my order over the phone and upsold me to the Grolier Encyclopedia..”It has multimedia capabilities,” she said.
The package wasn’t much, I thought, when it arrived, small and flat, the next day.
Still, would multimedia eclipse the wonder of the remote control uncoupler?
On Christmas morning I did my best to tilt the field toward the train set.
I laid out the track the night before.
I tested the engine. I put the station and the metal tunnel out in front of the stocking.
The CD-ROM box was left unwrapped in the closet for later.
At first, it worked!
The train was a quick success. Twist the transformer, hit the whistle and there was a smile on my son’s face as big as the one I remembered from 1955.
As the week unfolded, however, the epic struggle between a ‘50s childhood toy and a ‘90s one began to shift.
The computer was a slow starter, that’s for sure. There is the problem of the manual. Somebody, meaning dad, had to read the directions, scope out the keystrokes, and engage in the steep learning curve.
But I know something had happened when the phone rang Friday.
My son called to say he had found two secret rooms in Myst.
He had played at the terminal all afternoon.
The train engine hadn’t moved.
In fact, the electric switches had developed a short in them. The track was bent in a couple of places and the engine kept derailing.
My wife complained the layout took up so much room.
Today, the engine, whistle, rolling stock and track will be packed away in a box until next Christmas.
The computer?
It has been moved out of a closet and now occupies a year-round place in the family room.
Kids have started coming over to play Myst.
I take some solace in knowing that this year, at least, the train set held its own.
Deep down I know the reason.
The train excited me and I talked many nights about my own childhood with my son.
He liked hearing about the good old days, the ancient times, and how kids back then managed to have fun.
By week’s end, I felt the dad’s slightly desperate need to relate to a kid’s world.
The other night, I stayed up late and searched for the coyote’s call on the multimedia CD-ROM encyclopedia.
OK, it was neat.
Not the same as the steam whistle, but close.
, DataTimes MEMO: Chris Peck is the Editor of The Spokesman-Review. His column appears each Sunday on the Perspective page.