When I (Carol) was a kid, there were very few commercial items to encourage creativity. Was the lack of material items “the ticket” to use our imaginations? I rather think so.
Our creative materials revolved around a coffee can of crayons, most of them broken, flour and water paste. Mom did make a salt/flour clay occasionally — we loved it. And we always decorated Christmas cookies — she didn’t make any rules about the process.
Or when Mom draped the dining room table with a blanket in order, I might have a playhouse during the winter. How creative — I remember designating the spaces under the table as the kitchen, the living room, the babies’ room for my doll, and in the fourth corner, my bedroom.
Or when she’d bake bread and give me a chunk of dough to knead and fashion my own loaf that she baked alongside hers. When Dad got home, I’d present him my offering. Of course, he would tell me it was the best he’d ever eaten.
Or when us kids spent hours going through the Montgomery Ward (which we called “Monkey Wards”) or Spiegel catalogs, imagining ourselves wearing some of the clothes. I can also remember creating “paper dolls” with the fashion photos. After Christmas a special Valentine’s Day catalog arrived and we spent hours deciding which packet of cards we’d have Mom order for us.
Or when we were allowed to sleep as long as we wanted during summer vacation. I so remember daydreaming in the morning, looking out the north bedroom window, studying the clouds, planning my day, imagining the future.
Or when we split dandelion stems, then dropped them in a bucket of water and watched the stems curl, or picked wild cucumbers for ammunition for our neighborhood wars or picked jewel weed ever so carefully, then with your girlfriend “pop” each “pod” and watch the seed explosion. Or pick the hollyhock blossoms that grew on the west side of our grade school next door and create elegant hollyhock dolls.
Today, viewing the incredible changes in children’s lives makes me sad. How difficult it is for a little one to have time to dream, develop self-concept, learn to have fun with basic ingredients when, through no fault of their own, their lives are programmed twenty-four/seven.
Pre-cut figures, sparkly glue, 1-2-3 projects sold at Hobby Lobby and Michaels as creative projects for kids make me crazy. Parents who want more, truly creative projects, have an uphill battle as their young are enticed with expensive toys, most requiring a battery.
Our family canoed and camped each year for a week in the Boundary Waters, cooking over an open fire, eating fish if someone had been lucky, bath-rooming in the woods, etc. Our kind of wilderness camping is fading, due to today’s family priorities — cell phones and other electronic devices winning out.
Seems like the writing is on the wall, what next creative area will fall to the technology explosion?
