This morning, on FirstNews, and for the next several, Jere Gish is bringing us the Great American Toy Test. As in past years, a group of experts...kids...get a chance to play with the latest craze from Toy-ville. If you watched Thursday morning, you saw one of the "hot" toys: stacking cups...for forty dollars! Plastic cups=$$$$$40! Is it just me or does that seem a little excessive? Seems like you could just buy some cheap, plastic glasses and, oh, I don't know, use a CLOCK with a SECOND HAND to time your efforts. It is no surprise to me, or any other parent, I suspect, that something simple like these cups would be a big draw for kids. Children like to use their imaginations and, nowadays, with computers and TVs and video games and all the other gadgets, sometimes they don't get the chance. When our kids were little, all grandma had to do was open a cupboard and get out some pots and pans and the little ones would build and stack and create for a long time. Even today, when our 17 year old is bored, we sit him in the middle of the kitchen with a pile of pans and he is content for hours. Certainly, he'd rather play with them than wash them.

I've mentioned before the big cardboard box of old toys my mom bought at a garage sale for ten dollars. She thought there might be some goodies in there for when the grandkids visit. Well, it has become a major hit over the years. Many of the toys are in good shape but a few are in various states of deterioration...not unlike myself. No matter. They all get played with. (I always questioned the whole "Island of Misfit Toys" deal in that Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer show. Those mixed up playthings would be big hits for most kids. A bird that swims! A Charlie in the box! A spotted elephant! All would be great! And, by the way, exactly what is the that little dolly's problem that landed her on the island? It must be psychological...because she looks like, well, a doll.) The point is, for a ten dollar bill, my mom found many lifetimes of fun for a bunch of kids.

There is the old saw that you give a kid a big present and he or she would rather play with the box. The interesting thing about that saying is...it's mostly true. There is nothing better than an empty box when you're a little kid. The bigger, the better. Whenever someone in the neighborhood had ordered a large appliance or TV or something, us kids would circle that house like vultures...just waiting for the empty box. The possibilities were endless...a tunnel or a fort or a sled or any number of other ideas would fall out of that empty box. The big toy prize when I was growing up was when one of those giant spools would show up...one of those large wooden "wheels" used for cable and other things. Occasionally, an adult would get one with the intention of making something totally useless like a picnic table out of it. As kids, we knew you had to get inside of it and roll around...preferably down any hill available. You felt like the lost sock in a violent dryer. My many such trips as a child may explain my many misjudgments and odd behaviors as an adult.

Our little town had no toy store. The basements of both hardware stores were dark and foreboding places for 11 months of the year. But, after Thanksgiving, they would become our version of Santa's Workshop. The toy-hunting season was pretty short back then but, I think, it was more exciting than having shelves full of toys available at all times, not to mention being able to point and click your way to toydom whenever the mood strikes you. Having a June birthday, also meant, for me, a long dry spell in the toy receiving department so when the downstairs lights went on at those stores, I was all over it. Despite the new toys out there, I think the ones that were favorites then are still favorites now...Play-Dough, Etch-A-Sketch, Slinky, Tinker-Toys, Build Your Own Bratwurst...that one may have been just in my town.

Anyway, stay tuned for more of The Great American Toy Test on FirstNews. Maybe somebody has decided to take bubblewrap...dye it different colors....add a timer and score sheets....and create a game called "Pop-A-Lot! Increase your child's manual dexterity while having all the Poppin' Fun you can take! Learn to Pop different designs! Use your feet to Dance and Pop at the same time! Pop-A-Lot! Pop-A-Lot-A FUN! Only $40! Order NOW!" Of course, you'd have to add $7.95 for shipping and handling...including the bubblewrap.