Batteries not required......

Made in America.  We hear that a lot more these days, but what does that really mean?  I believe that American craftsmanship refuses to become extinct, though at times I feel like the last of a dying breed. I grew up in the "wonder years", the 50's.  It was a time when kids were left to their own imaginations, a time of discovery, but does that magic still exist today?

If you were lucky, you had a few of dad's hand tools to borrow. A hammer, a saw, a hatchet, and maybe a brace and several bits for drilling holes when needed and of course a jack knife. When a project needed lumber, we searched the town or dump for discards, or disassembled something we had built before, and reworked it into a tree house, a rocket, race car, raft, or fort or countless other things. Nails were precious, and didn't always come easy. We got our nails by pulling them from old boards, and pounding them straight, ready to be used again. The extras, were collected in a coffee can. The projects required a lot of time and energy. We often started in the morning , and worked until dusk, stopping for lunch, supper and an occasional drink from a garden hose. Nothing happened instantly, but we did see our dreams come true.
We dug holes, chopped trees, sawed and hammered boards and when everything was complete, we stood back and it was silent. No thumping radios, push button sound effects or flashing lights. We used our imaginations for that too.Growling engines, shifting gears and squealing tires and countless other sounds came from our voices or materials at hand to create our world and make it complete.

Children should know that the events in their lives can come from within, that they can create a wonderful world from their own imaginations and that can lead to a life of enjoyment. I am glad that I grew up knowing what "Made in America" really meant, and where the ideas came from. I don't know if I can ever get all of my dreams completed in this lifetime, because the list keeps growing.