Houlton High Times writers
Today, Barbies can sing along with the MP3s and the Nintendo Wii actually gets lazy kids off the couch by forcing them to use their bodies as controllers. There’s no question that the toys kids love are getting smarter and that has some of us feeling a bit jealous. The jealousy stems from the fact that when our age group was younger, our favorite toys didn’t sing and dance for us probably due to the fact that they were Legos and Polly Pockets. Yes, we had Super Nintendo and even the Nintendo 64, but we lacked the exciting visuals and ability to be mobile that today’s Nintendo Wii offers.
“All we had were Legos and Lincoln Logs,” senior Casey Faulkingham stated when asked what she thought of the toys offered these days. It is true that some of the most technologically advanced toys we had are now thought to be outdated. The Easy-Bake Oven and the Lite Brite are two great examples. They were what all kids wanted for their birthday or Christmas, but now, who wants to play with a light bulb-powered oven when there are BB guns that look and operate like the real thing?
We were also forced to play with pages and print. We didn’t have this fancy LeapFrog that a child can use now to help them pronounce words or just read the story to them. We had to rely on our good, old parents for that.
So, take a look around the toy aisles the next time you find yourself wandering through Wal-Mart and tell me: are you jealous that you didn’t get to play with singing Barbies and life-like BB guns like we are? Or are you just happy that you made it through your childhood without choking on a Lego?
