Simple Toys And Treasured Trash

I work with a woman whose grandson has every toy known to mankind. Not only that, but he has two of every toy. He has one set of toys at his parent's house and another duplicate set at his grandma's house. That way he won't risk feeling deprived when he's visiting grandma.

His favorite toy is a bowl of fake fruit. A small fortune has been spent on his mountain of toys, but he would rather play with fake fruit. He wore out the red apple and has been driving grandma crazy with his begging and pining for a new red apple. I'm a friend of grandma, so when I saw a fake red apple in the dollar store, I just had to buy it. In fact, I bought two. Now he has a spare, just in case.

It seems kind of strange to me that with all of the fancy toys out there, a kid would prefer fruit. But then, I got hours of enjoyment out of simple toys when I was a kid. But then, I had no choice, all toys were simple way back then.

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My parents came over for dinner and took home with them a watermelon rind and a used tea bag. My parents are not poor by any means, but they grew up during the depression and the smallest things seem precious to them. The rind still had an inch or two of red fruit attached, so it couldn't be thrown out. The tea bag was used for only one cup of tea. My mother can make that tea bag last another week. I don't even want to go into the piece of foil that my mom washed. I thought that the purpose of foil was to avoid washing a pan. It defeats the purpose to wash the foil.

I was born long after the depression, but it continues to play a part in my life. I must seem extravagant to my mom the way I go through tea bags. I might spend as much as a nickel a day on tea bags.