Monday, January 28, 2008

Happy 50th, LEGO

When I was a kid (read well into college), I had a 12 by 12' LEGO city. A good 1/4 of the town came one Christmas morning when, upon my mother closing her toy store, she had saved some two dozen sets for my sister and I--that is one of my fondest Christmas memories as we tore into package after package of LEGO sets.

Sometime in early college my dad got a pool table, and I came home to dismantle most of the town, but still tried to have one along a 1' strip around the basement walls (double decker roads and all). It got stepped on frequently, so it eventually came down. Every set is labeled, baggied with instructions, and in one of five large plastic tubs in my basement now. Some day, the city shall rise again.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Benjamin: You know, 70 is not that old...I think you might be peeing yourself at 90 but 7o? I say this because I am older than these Legos! Not by much but older so much closer to 70 than you are. LOL Let the legos live on!

Benjamin Vogt said...

L-I think you're deluding yourself. Studies at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN show that incidences of people ages 30-60 soiling themselves have been steadily on the rise since 1970: from 1 in 1,000 to 7 in 1,000 in 2004. The study suggests that the trigger for this just might be people not accepting their age, embracing their present and future lives with passion and vigor; these people often succumb to societal pressure to appear to be 18 by wearing short skirts, listening to loud r&b on ipods, and working at fast food restaurants while intoxicated. Similar studies in England and Japan have come to similar conclusions.

Benjamin Vogt said...

No, not short skirts, but frumpy pink sweat pants that say "Alpha Pi" across the bum, tucked into those fuzzy-topped faux suede boots.

Unknown said...

I think that if I wore either of those items, lightning might strike me. And I'm only 31! lol.

But seriously, aren't you a bit disappointed by Legos these days? They are all packaged to make a specific thing--I LOVED the big box of random 4's, 2's, etc., that we had as a kid, because we could make ANYTHING (in general) and NOTHING (in particular)... it was wonderful.

Benjamin Vogt said...

BG--At least someone on the planet doesn't wear them. As for the blocks, I like both sets, and the older I get, the sadder I get when a "set" is dismantled; but I like the model kinds now more. Still, there is nothing like pure raw creating from a bucket of those vanilla 1980s bricks.