When I was growing up, my grandpa made some awesome toys for us out of wood. I remember on my birthdays and for Christmas we would always receive something that he made for us. Sometimes he would make gifts for all of us (my siblings and I) and other times we got our own individual presents. One year my grandpa made a block set for us and a container to put them in. We would spend hours playing with those blocks; building castles, seeing who could build the biggest tower-things like that. One year my grandpa built us what he called a “Toy Van”. It looked more like a diesel, but it was pretty big and the “trailer” that it pulled was open on the top so we could store our toys in it. I bet my parents were happy to have something for us to put our toys in, especially since we weren’t the best at cleaning up.
One of our favorite things that grandpa made were wooden swords and shields, they looked awesome and were fun to play with! I remember visiting and going into his woodshop-a huge garage full of wood, power tools, and awesome handmade toys. As the years went on, grandpa started making other toys like ping pong ball and rubber band shooters and even wooden tommy guns. He painted all of the toys so they would look more realistic. We had good times playing with those toys and to honor his memory, I have built a wood shop and started making toys for my kids too.
