Passed Down

     As long as I continue to have 'extras' playing here at my house I will always have some stuff to remember some of the people I worked with at the library. As I tried to write this earlier today with all the kids outside playing I took a good look around my yard. I didn't buy many of the big durable toys and play things that the newest little ones (my extras) were having fun playing in. I got so many of them from ladies I worked with.
     I was younger than a lot of the women already working there. They had older kids, sometimes even older grandkids. They grew out of these passed down goodies. Whenever anyone was looking to pass on a still usable toy they'd come and find me. If it was free and in decent shape they knew i'd take it. Why not? I knew I couldn't afford all those goodies. Why shouldn't my kids get to play with them just because they were someone elses first? Besdies most can get a good scrubbing or even power washing and they're good as new. Especially to my kids.
     I began to inventory the items about my yard. The newest, largest passed down playhouse came maybe six months ago from Betty. My Jake is still little enough to enjoy it. It is huge. She and her husband followed me home one day with it in the back of their truck. There was no way it was getting here otherwise. It's got a house with small table inside, slide out the front and crawl through tunnel underneath. There is a brigde that runs over the tunnel into a smaller landing that has a climb up area. My little extras aren't quite big enough for it yet. But soon enough Jake will have to share that table where he likes to hide out and eat his lunch on nice days. Soon enough he won't be here every day for lunch anmore, but that is another topic for another day.
     I have a huge blue boat with a cover from Wendi that could be a sandbox but we use it as a toy box. There is the 'girl' playhouse Claudia dropped off one day for Emily as her girls were too big. It's only girl because of the pink door but the boys don't care and play in it too. We have a small white table with two  blue chairs that I got from Debbie. Though I never worked with Coreen I have a green turtle sandbox she inherited when she moved into her new house and didn't want so it was passed on to me.
     I certainly cannot forget the ratty pink double stroller, also from Wendi, that Emily still uses to push her stuffed animals around the yard in. No matter how many times she forgets and it gets left out and rained on and yucked up overnight. Her and Jake still fight over using it. The other morning I woke to see it sitting on the curb with my garbage. I knew one of my older boys screwed up badly and ran out to save it from the curb. Then I woke Em up to be sure it wasn't broken. And Andrew the garbage culprit who saw it parked by the cans outside and thought it was trash and so put it out. Although an item I had placed on top of the cans because it was too big to fit was saved when it should have ben trashed. Ah, love that mind of a teenage boy.  
     I love seeing new kids having a great time playing in toys my kids are now too old for. It is very sad and hard for me to part with toys I think are still useful. I'm very glad they can still be used here for my extras. Too bad they have to grow up too. Slowly I get rid of the broken, old, beat up toys that no one touches. If my husband had his way we wouldn't have much of anything left in the yard. I just hope that when the time comes and I can get rid of things I can pass them down to another kid who will get a whole lot of joy playing with their new passed down toy. Is it any wonder I had to stop myself from balling at the end of Toy Story 3?