Heidi Renoud's  "Toys and Joys"
E~Paper Spring 2003
This was a paper for Eastern University's Wr206 class
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My Toys and Joys
This is a paper was written in response to an assignment for WR206 about Childhood memories.

          As a child I lived on the top of a mountain and was miles from the nearest town, so my imagination was my best friend. I did not write much as a kid but instead created living and concrete objects of my imagination. I used Fisher Price little people to create worlds in the dirt and grass of our front yard. These projects would last as long as I could keep them from being mowed up or packed off by the “dogs,” but now that I am a mother I  believe it was my mother cleaning up that was the “dog”.  I would add to them daily as I created more elaborate schemas in my mind of what I could add to this imaginary world of “little people” and what they needed to make their world more exciting for them. 

            I can visualize exactly the space in the front yard that I used to facilitate my world of toys and can see the leaves falling from the nearby oak trees that would indicate to me the nearing of the time in which I would no longer be able to provide additions to my little world due to the impending weather ahead. At this time of the year my world would move inside to my treasured doll house.

            My dollhouse would be the extension of my fair-weathered imaginary play world for the cold months spent on the top of the mountain. I would extend my play through the long winter months and build on my schemas of what things should look like. I had electric lights that I would weave throughout the dollhouse making sure to hide all the cords so the family within my house would not trip on the cords.  This doll house was very large and cumbersome. It took up an entire corner in my bedroom and I can remember exactly the street and the season of the year in which I discovered my doll house. My mother and I were coming from my grandparents home and on the way we drove past an old Victorian style home that was having an eclectic garage sale. I saw this doll house and begged my mother to turn around so I could “just look at it”.  The doll house rode home with us that afternoon and all the way up the mountain I could not wait to set up my imagination within its walls.

            My beloved doll house went to auction one slim year when my parents had a “cleaning out” of the shop, house and garage to obtain some financial support for the family.  I was devastated. I carried that devastation quietly inside of me for many years and then as a young adult I revealed to my mother how devastated this action was to me.  She tried to replace my doll house with smaller versions but none of them were quite the same. As an adult I still held this deep desire to have another doll house but to no avail could I find one that quite matched my beloved childhood image until one fateful day! My daughter and I were out shopping and she had heard my story of the lost doll house and as we drove past a sale she screamed at me to turn around, she has saw something and would not tell me what.   I pulled up to the sale and instantly saw what she was so excited about, a huge doll house!  This doll house was about as close to duplication as one could get to my original childhood one. I have this doll house sitting proudly on my fireplace  hearth. I sacrificed my fireplace for the doll house so that I could “play” with it.  I share this house with my children as they use their imaginations to create a world to play within.
               I have reclaimed my joy for toys with my own children and constantly am collecting all of my lost childhood toys. I have an extensive collection of Fisher-Price little people as well as indulging in collections of newer toys that I find fascinating such as castles and the figures that go with them along with the ever famous Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story figures and a Spider-man collection. I display all of these toys on shelves throughout my home and chose my home based solely on the fact that it had children’s playroom with numerous shelves. I share all of these toys with my children as they share their toys with me. They help breech the gap between imagination and expression. Toys help to express what you are imagining and can facilitate the creation of a whole other world that will lead you into the world of the unknown and back again.

            Visitors find it a little strange to hear my children come to me and ask “mom, can I play with your little people?” or “can we get your toys down and play with them outside?”.  I have a deep passion for toys and the ability that they have to transform an ordinary day into an extraordinary experiment with the imagination that has no end.     

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