THE LURE OF LINCOLN LOGS
Nancy Scott
(January 2012)
It was 11 a.m. on Black Friday, and I decided to ride along with my brother Mark. I was determined not to spend any money, since I'd spent too much at the pre-Thanksgiving sale. But Mark wanted the bargain-price big tins of Lincoln Logs to send to his friend Larry's son in North Carolina.
The department store wasn't as crowded as I expected, because most people had shown up earlier to raid store shelves. Mark bought two tins of Lincoln Logs after cajoling a female sales-clerk to “look in the back.” And we bought some half-priced candy neither of us needed.
After our success we headed back for Thanksgiving leftovers courtesy of Mark's fiancee. Relaxed after over-stuffing ourselves Mark said, “I used to love Lincoln Logs. It would be fun to build something with those Lincoln Logs. Maybe I'll keep them. I bet you could build a whole village with two tins. I could build a castle on the dining-room table. We mostly don't eat there, except for holidays.”
I should have been a sensible grown-up. I should have argued for giving and not receiving. I could have argued for mailing presents early.
But did I? Not on your life. Oh, the proper responses flitted through my brain, but what I almost immediately said was, “If you play you have to call me so I can play, too. I remember our Lincoln Logs. I couldn't build big things, but I could make something. And I loved the mansions you built when we were kids. And we never had two tins.”
And my next suggestion was even sillier. “Maybe we could play and then pack them back up for the boys. Do they still make Lincoln Logs out of wood?”
“Oh, I'd want to keep them once I'd played with them,” Mark replied. “I'll have to think about this.”
As I write this on a cold January morning, I'm happy (I think) to say that Mark's better nature prevailed (probably because his Significant Other wouldn't give up the dining-room table).
When Mark called Larry, the 6-year-old said he had built “a big castle.”
But we're watching the after-Christmas sales, just in case. After all, if a 6-year-old can build a big castle, just think what we could do.
Nancy Scott's over-500 bylines have appeared in magazines, literaryjournals, anthologies and newspapers, and as audio commentaries. Anessayist and poet, she has published three chapbooks. Recent work has appeared in Burnside Review, Contemporary Haibun Online, Thema,and Wordgathering. She won First Prize in the 2009 International Onkyo Braille Essay Contest.