There's an excavator and a backhoe operating in the street out front. Our ninety-something year old neighbor was leaning on his front fence watching them in rapt fascination.
I was watching him watch them. You could catch the gleam in his eye from three houses down; it was pretty cool to see. I guess you can take the Tonka Toys away from the boy, but you can never really take the boy away from the Tonka Toys. :)
Absolutely true.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in downtown Lafayette and they were removing the railroad tracks that ran by the duplex I'd just bought, my oldest son (then about a year old) and I sat and watched the excavators for hours, as they ripped up track and later installed storm sewer line along the former right-of-way. It was like a ballet of giants.
You know they sell videos that consist soley of earth moving equipment, well, moving dirt around.
ReplyDeleteNo music, no people, just huge machines moving dirt, rocks and stuff around, digging, lifting, rather loudly.
You can stick most male children infront of the TV for HOURS and they watch in fascination.
When they shut down the US Steel Youngstown Works, my father was forced to retire. He bought the bulldozer he used to drive there. He later added a backhoe. I never did find out what use he had for either one.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree on that sentiment.
ReplyDeleteKid in my office (jeezis, he's 27 and a father of two) gets fed up with drawing buildings, about half a dozen times a day. He throws stuff around in disgust because he'd rather be building it, as opposed to just designing it.
I often have similar thoughts.
Yep. We love our 'chinery. It's something a real man never grows out of.
ReplyDelete:-)
Joe
My daughter plays with my old Tonka's. They are now 40 years old and still get played with in the sand box.
ReplyDeleteThey don't make toys like that today.
Steel and well Steel for the most part. Not much plastic on mine, just the smoke stacks and some of the tires.
One of the few times I have seen My Dad truly happy, he was driving his bulldozer. Heavy equipment operation and repair is an excellent Father/Son activity. Maybe He will eventually let me take a turn at the controls.......
ReplyDeleteMy Dad is in his 80's and he still has this wind up metal earth moving type toy that still runs. He takes it out every Christ and runs it around the living room.
ReplyDeleteHeh. When they recently rebedded and resurfaced our parking lots, every guy in the building was suddenly taking smoke breaks. Whether they smoked or not...
ReplyDeleteAnd some of us get to operate those "Tonka Toys" for a living!!!
ReplyDeleteHorsepower beats a number 2 shovel every time.
well, they're big and powerful and they make the earth move...
ReplyDeleteeven ninety year olds can identify with that...
jtc
And here I thought this post was going to be about you watching the boys who were playing with the toys. Or are you still thinking about that soldier moving sandbags?
ReplyDeleteFIY (machinery geeks)
ReplyDeleteBobcat 50th Anniversary Tour
at Bobcat of Indy Whitestown store this Saturday!
It was like a ballet of giants.
ReplyDeleteYou got that right. I once watched a guy using an excavator to separate the pile of rubble left after a building was imploded. He could pull a steel beam out of the pile and then scrape the concrete off of the beam using the bucket. He made it look like that arm and bucket were an extension of his arm and hand. Ballet of giants indeed.
Hyu betcha. I want to get enough land for a few dozen apple trees, just so I have an excuse to buy a Farmall H.
ReplyDelete"I guess you can take the Tonka Toys away from the boy, but you can never really take the boy away from the Tonka Toys. :)"
ReplyDeleteNope. And no apologies for that.
My dentist owns a Kubota tractor with blade and backhoe. I am so damn jealous.