A “TRU SCALE” TALE

Among the many books I get from the library each week, I try and read all of the new non-fiction books that interest me. One new book I recently checked out was a book that featured old toy farm equipment, especially tractors. I mentioned this to Tim and naturally we reminisced about an experience we had when we were around 15 as I recall.  First, by way of a little background setting which will make this story more germane.  When we were very young circa 5 or 6, we usually received many metal farm equipment toys for Christmas (see pic below). This was natural, as farmers, we wanted toy equipment since this was and is our main interest. When I see some of the premium prices that are paid these days for mint condition 1950’s era metal toy farm equipment, I was startled to see how much that stuff would be worth today if we had kept it in mint condition. Of course, even if we had kept any of it, it certainly would be presently far from mint condition having gone through our hands! I suppose most metal toy farm equipment sold in the past was for collecting and permanently sit on a shelf. Not so for us. We actually “used” all the equipment. For example, I remember we would actually “plow” in the sand box with the toy plows; disk the sand with the toy disks, and haul dirt and things in the wagons, etc.  We eventually “grew out” of playing with toy farm equipment, or so we thought! When we were around 15 or so on one of our hitch hiking trips to Norwalk, we went into the P&R Value Store. I don’t think P&R is there anymore. Since about 99% of my present retail store experience now revolves around Wal-Mart I wouldn’t know if some of those old stores are still in business today or not. While there we spied a whole display of swell Tru Scale metal farm toys. We both tacitly were very attracted to all the cool metal farm equipment and immediately purchased a Tru Scale tractor! On our next hitchhiking trip to Norwalk, we came armed with as much money as we could scrape up and bought some True Scale equipment. Of course as teenagers we were much too “cool” to ever buy, much less play with kid’s stuff like metal farm toys! When we went back to purchase the additional equipment, we posed as “big brothers” buying all these “toys” for our bogus, non existing younger “brother”. When the clerk would assist us in our selections, Tim and I would say out loud to ourselves, “You think he’d like that one”.  Upon purchasing the additional equipment, we immediately went home all excited and returned to working the sandbox “fields” which had been laying fallow for several years of neglect during our “grown up being cool teenage years”! I still just love to see the toy farm equipment every time I go to TSC in Norwalk. Hmmmm, I wonder if our “younger brother’s” grandchildren would like some nice new metal toy farm equipment?????