When Jack was in first grade, his teacher told us about his amazing ability to turn anything into a toy, even scraps of paper left over from class projects. Summer is now in full swing, and so is Jack's imagination.
The other day I found Jack and his friend Brett hunched over an old National Geographic world map they'd spread out on the coffee table, plotting their global domination with pebbles and old foreign coins.
This morning Jack and his friend Josh repaired this ocean liner, which was scattered in a hundred pieces they salvaged from the ocean--er, entryway--floor.
Late this afternoon we discovered that the neighbors across the street had a truckload of sand delivered to their backyard. Jack helped Miles and Daphne build an entire city, including underground tunnels, highways, and pyramids. With only a break for dinner, they worked until the sun went down.
When Jack had trouble finding all of his cars in the fading daylight, he ran home to get an old metal detector that his friend Josh gave him when his family got a new one. It turned them up easily, and now the kids are meeting up tomorrow to play more games with the metal detector.
Speaking of people passing things on to Jack--something that inexplicably happens all of the time!--here's his latest treasure, acquired from our friends' new house: two old wooden military supply boxes that had been used by the previous owners as planters. Jack's eyes lit up when he discovered our friends didn't want them. He immediately saw all sorts of possibilities and jumped in straightaway to help empty out all of the dirt, which our friends will be using for the mud pie kitchen they're making in their backyard.
We loaded the boxes in the back of the Jeep, brought them home, and Roger and Jack spent an hour scrubbing them. Jack hopes I'll be convinced nothing is nesting in them so he can put them in his room. We'll see. We googled the information stamped on the boxes; they were made in 1947 to transport napalm bombs from Boston to Denver.
Can life get any more exciting than that when you're a 12-year-old boy and school is out for the summer?
Oh, yeah! Now it's after 10:00 and I've got to go track Jack down somewhere in the neighborhood. He's out playing night games with Cooper, Zoe and the gang, and he has to get up really early for swimming lessons.
2 comments:
It sounds like his summer is off to a fabulous start! Way to allow the imagination freedom to roam. What a gift to give your child.
What a great kid! I'm sure that he's a joy to watch, experience, first hand. I know I love hearing about his exploits and adventures.
I can remember great times playing on the beach at PI, with toys and digging tunnels and forts with roofs made from old doors. We even had an old camp stove and toasted bread, unbeknownst to parents.
As for the old ammo boxes, I remember similar old boxes when I was a kid. They were painted dark gray and were full of papers from Nana, Dad's mother. I wouldn't be at all surprised if at least one was in your parents attic or barn!
Jack, maybe you're the next big toy inventor! In any event, don't ever grow out of your imagination.
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