About five years ago the best seller on the book charts was the Dangerous Book for Boys. It was basically a book telling kids how their parents used to be kids. Isn't this like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs I hear anyone over the age of 50 say?
Nowadays all you need to be a kid is a laptop, a smart phone and a TV remote control and you can connect with the world without having to get your backside out of bed or off the sofa.
How can a kid forget to be a kid? Simples as Alexander Meercat would say. Technology. Yes it is fantastic and inspirational but it has taken the fun out of creating things.
- Have you ever made a catapult from a piece of wood, strips of rubber from an old bicycle tyre and fired pebbles at empty coke tins ( or seagulls in the garden?)
- Ever taken the old pram or push chair that your baby sister used to use and convert it to a simple go cart just to go careering down nearby hills at full speed barely in control?
- Ever built a tree house using discarded bits of wood and corrugated iron sheets?
- Ever whittled a mysterious gun using your penknife?
If the answer is no to the above then I am afraid for you and your ability to be a man. People don't make stuff any more. We all go out and buy our flat packs and put them together but don't actually create stuff from first principles.
My wife will sit and create wonderful meals and is keen on crochet and is constantly making little throws or quilts.
My mum asked, that when my parents die what would I like. I said dads shed. It is almost as old as I am, has moved from house to house with every move that they made but was a hallowed place where I use to create things as a child. Even my kids were left in it to play with a hammer and nails. They would come out with little bits of wood nailed together claiming that they had created the Titanic. Sadly there wasn't a river nearby to see if it would sink like I would have done in my youth.
Penknives. If you talk about kids and penknives you think about school violence, gangs and stabbings. I'm a country boy. Every child used o have a pen knife just for a bit of whittling. Sticks were cut to make walking sticks or swords, all you needed was two bits of stick and some twine ( point sharpening optional depending on how evil you were.)
I once found an arrow. Not a sharp pointy one but a sporting arrow. So what did I do? Cut down a good strong stick, using wmy penknife, put grooves in the top and bottom, put a piece of string under tension and you have created a simple bow. Not worthy of sorting out the French a Agincourt but enough o fire an arrow over a good enough distance. To hit your sister. The resultant crying and threatening to tell aforementioned parents was not part of the plan but how many of you have actually shot a sibling with an arrow? I rest my case.
That is what being a kid is about.
The good thing about enjoying being a creative kid is that when you grow up you get to have more creative toys. Drills, circular saws, paint strippers..........
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