As a child one of favorite sights was that of the suitcase my uncle had brought back with him from his travels. We always knew that bloated suitcase represented many mysterious and exciting gifts (toys of course) that can only be found abroad.
We were always very polite and waited patiently for the suitcase opening ceremony during which each of us received a present, thoroughly packed in wrapping paper bearing funny looking writing and smells of faraway places.
During the past decade I've been fortunate enough to visit my share of the world. However, only recently, with the birth of my Son I've been able to replicate those exiting moments. My wife and I are the only excited ones right now (he's 6 months old) but that didn't stop me.
Suffice to say walking into Manhattan's Toys R Us and FAO Schwartz had me leaving with a brand new 29" Samsonite and several pounds overweight.
Coming home, chest swollen with a new Father's pride I couldn't wait to show my wife my recent acquisitions. I knew she'd be proud of my toy hunting abilities and the new arsenal at the disposal of my Son.
I never noticed but it seems Duplo and Playmobil have really fascinating boxes. Apparently the contents were not nearly as exciting as the box that kept him busy for hours. Each corner, string and picture provided hours of fun either through banging or staring.
The mobile phone I bought, with numbers, letters and music which are activated by many colorful buttons came in a real neat packaging. It even stood upright by itself! The phone was cast away in minutes in favor of colorful yellow cardboard.
Seriously, I'm thinking of starting up my own toy factory for toddlers. Dorian's boxes and packages - all shapes and sizes. Why spend a small fortune on useless toys just for the packaging when you can buy as many as you'd like for the price of a single toy?
I'm currently in the seed level looking for investors. Would you be interested?
I guess I should be content. This phase won't last very long before toys get much more expansive, very fast. In fact, I've been trying to convince my wife we need a Playstation 3 since our son was born. I'm still counting on him to convince her we need it.
There's something beautiful about the total lack of materiality in babies. They are truly able to appreciate the free things in life such as a hug, a package, a tree branch or anything else of this sort. For some reason we lose it along the way.
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1 comment:
Too true. When I was a kid, we used to get presents from overseas relations and by far the most fun was popping the double wrap.
If I had children, I'd seriously consider buying them toys for 5-year olds when they were two, and giving them the boxes while saving the presents for later. ;)
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