The Stick

For all of you who are wondering just what to get your modern child for Christmas, here's a novel idea: Get him or her the wonderful, inventive, ingenious toy that was most recently inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame at the Strong National Museum of play -- the stick! Yes, that's right, the old-fashioned stick!

If you were a child prior to the electronic age, then you already know the power of the stick. Long before high-tech video games, computers, ipod's, and the like, there were cardboard boxes (also a toy inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2005) . . . and the stick. The only accessory needed was our imagination. The stick could be a slingshot or a pistol if it was shaped just right; almost any old stick could be used for a sword or a baton, or an imaginary horse to ride on, and a good, sturdy stick was perfect for a walk in the woods and made an excellent bat for baseball or playing stickball. Add pets, and you could spend hours playing fetch with the dog or dangling a rope of yarn before a cat. The possibilities were limitless. Even if it got left in the wash, no real harm was done, except perhaps a pull or two on better fabrics.

I have to admit, they weren't much fun to play with while just sitting on the sofa or lying on the bed (think "pet rock"). They required active play and beckoned one to come running, in sheer defiance to a mother's frantic cries of "don't run with that stick!" Marketed properly, it's the ideal toy for today's generation of inactive, unimaginative, overweight children (and adults).

That gives me an idea. It might make me famous, or at least rich . . . I'll get back to you.

Have a blessed day!