The Marvelous Toy

In 1969, Santa brought little Linda a “marvelous toy”.   It was fabulously decorated with non-concentric stripes in all the colors of the rainbow. It was not a top and not a box, but it looked like both.  And just like the Peter, Paul and Mary song, Linda’s marvelous mechanical toy could do everything.  With just the turn of a crank, like the song said, the toy went zip when it moved and pop when it stopped and whrrr when it stood still.  It marched and chugged along for hours and hours of wide-eyed child enjoyment.

Twenty years later, the marvelous mechanical toy turned up in a box when Linda was looking through the basement for ornaments and other Christmas decorations.  Intrigued, her little girl Sandy put down her Game Boy and picked up the toy.

“Mommy, where are the batteries in this toy,” she asked as she twisted and turned it around, carefully examining each side for a trap door.

“Where did that come from?” Linda looked down at Sandy and laughed. “It doesn’t have any batteries, all you do is turn the crank,” she said as she demonstrated.

The rainbow of colors was a little faded to a pastel palette and had some dimples and scratches on each side, but when Linda wound it up, it still went zip when it moved and pop when it stopped and whrr when it stood still.

Sandy’s eyes popped with bewildered amazement as the toy bopped along across the floor with the symphony of sounds.

“How does it do that?” she smiled as she followed the marvelous toy around the room like the marshall in a parade marching band.

Another twenty years later, Linda was reviewing the texted Christmas lists from her grandkids with daunted perplexity.

“I have never seen most of these words,” she told her husband Dean.  “Nano something, pods, buds, I-this and that, X box, Amazon fire, drones and an $800 phone?  Those words must be made up.”

“Sounds like Armageddon to me,” Dean laughed.

“Wait, I think that is the name a video game on the list,” Linda chucked.

A few weeks later, Linda, her daughter and granddaughter were opening boxes in her storage unit, searching for particular Christmas family ornaments.  This was Linda and Dean’s first Christmas in their Florida home.  Her kids and grandkids were coming, so she wanted everything to be just like home.

Three-year old Gina was at their feet watching videos on her HD fire tablet, when she heard a weak whrrr sound come from the discarded box next to her.  Gina put down the tablet and looked into the box.  Among the ribbons and bows, she saw something shiny with some white and colored striped paint.  Curious, she picked it up.  She turned it all around, then shook it, then put it on the floor and pushed it.

“Mommy, what is this?” Gina asked.

“Oh, it’s just an old-timey toy,” Sandy said.

Linda looked down at the toy and laughed.  “Don’t you remember this?” she said to Sandy as she tried to bend down to get the toy.

“Gina, please give that to Grandma,” Linda asked as she slowly got up. “This is a wonderful marvelous mechanical magical toy.”

Linda turned the crank and they watched the toy chug a few inches and stop.  She turned the crank some more and the toy came to life again.  It sputtered and wobbled a little but it still went zip when it moved and pop when it stopped and whrrr when it stood still.

Gina followed the toy with a baffled look.  “How is it moving?” she asked.  “Is it on wifi?”

“No,” Linda laughed.  “It doesn’t have any batteries, cords or computer chips.  It operates with the turn of a simple crank and it just goes.”

“Looks like it needs a few cranks now,” Sandy snickered.

“Just like me, it may have some missing paint and doesn’t move as fast, but it still works just fine,” Linda said.  “After all these years, it is really a marvelous toy.”