Toys Out of The Attic

Not long ago I picked up the last remnants of items from the old house, now the home of my former spouse. It wasn’t much: A few boxes of things from the garage attic that just took up space – and had for years and years. One box held a few toys from my childhood. Back in the early ‘70s, my Grandma Clara and Grandpa Ralph decided to start giving me Tonka trucks as Christmas presents. So for several years running I received the Mighty Tonka dump truck, then the car carrier, then the crane as well as some other toy trucks spaced intermittently at birthdays or Easter.

Banged and bruised from years of play in sandboxes and backyards (I actually remember sitting on the dump truck and riding it down the driveway when I was four or five years old), these toys have moved with me from my hometown to garages in Storm Lake, Omaha, Sioux City, and Minneapolis. I pulled them out of storage briefly when my kids went through their sandbox ages, but they didn’t have a big interest in the outdated metal hulks.

Today I sold the lot of trucks to a collector. I felt it was time to let go of that part of my childhood. I was never going to restore the trucks or display them in a family room or give them to my grandkids when that time comes. It is a better thing that my old Tonka trucks will be admired by a collector who appreciates the way things were once made. Toys really don’t belong in an attic any way.

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