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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Barb Rankin, I used to collect the Thomas Dam Troll Dolls, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson about using your imagination and the possibilities that open up for you when you do.
Fun Fact:
I’ll bet some of you are wondering what a Thomas Dam Troll doll is. It’s a plastic doll that looks like a troll, that mythical, cave dweller of folk lore fame that was either a dwarf or a giant, and it was considered rather unattractive – some might actually call it ugly. So sad……
The doll was created in 1959 by Thomas Dam, a Danish fisherman and woodcutter, who had no money to buy a Christmas gift for his daughter, Lila. So he carved this doll, imaging how a troll would look. Other children in the village saw the doll and they wanted one too! He named his company, Dam Things (get it!), and began producing the dolls in plastic. They were one of the biggest toy fads in the United States from 1963 to 1965. Imitators quickly entered the market due to a copyright error.
The doll had big hair in a variety of colors, and the hair stood straight up from its head. It came in all sizes. There was a small doll that fit on top of a pencil eraser; a very large one that was named – Iggy Normous – enormous – get it? Most of the dolls were about 3 inches tall. They originally were sold without clothes, and then they were marketed with many different costumes. The dolls were popular with both boys and girls.
DreamWorks Animation acquired the intellectual property rights for the Trolls franchise in 2013 and they are planning to release a computer-animated musical comedy film, Trolls, on November 4, 2016. A short trailer for the movie is already on line. So parents – guess what might be on your kids Christmas list year. If you hurry, I think there are still some bargains to be had eBay, before the sellers realize that this may once again become a fad. You might be able to save yourself a few dollars.
What I Learned Yesterday:
I grew up in the days when we had no computers, smart phones, or any other of the electronic toys that are so prevalent today. That might sound boring to a kid in this day and age! What on earth would you do if you couldn’t play Super Why! or Monkey Preschool Lunchbox or Moonbeeps: Fireflies or Cut the Rope or Angry Birds. (By the way – don’t be impressed that I know the names of some of these games – I hadn’t heard of any of them other than Angry Birds until I looked them up on Google).
Let’s face it – these games keep kids indoors (translate that to “safe”) and quiet. And parents know exactly what the kids are doing and playing.
Once upon a time it was considered safe to allow your kids to play outside in major cities, even when you couldn’t see them. And that’s exactly what we did – we played outside. Every single day after school and on the weekends.
My brother and I played together when we were young, as we were the only children in the neighborhood. Our problem was not having a lot of toys, so we created new ones. In order to do that, we had to use our imaginations – and that’s what we did!
Merriam-Webster defines imagination as “the ability to form a picture in your mind of something that you have not seen or experienced, the ability to think of new things.” It’s a creative ability, and can also be used to confront and deal with a problem.
Puddles became massive rivers to be forged, front porch steps became mountains to climb and conquer, and the swing set became a plane or a space ship propelling us high into the air.
We moved when I was eight years old, and suddenly there was an entire block of brand new playmates. I was the only girl in a neighborhood of 7 boys, and all of us were no more than 2 years apart in age, so we bonded quickly. Because we lived in sunny South Florida, we played outside year round.
We began our friendship by riding bikes together up and down the sidewalk near our homes. There was no nearby park, so our front, back and side yards became our territory. We weren’t allowed to play in the street as it was used as a shortcut road from one major road to another, and I was actually grateful for that. Even though I played with the boys, I wasn’t particularly athletic, and if we had played baseball, tag football, or other sports oriented endeavors, I would have quickly been excluded from the events.
As we got to know each other, we began play acting. One boy was the king, and I was the queen as we defended our tree fort from middle age invaders, always in an epic battle. We were lost on a desert island like Robin Crusoe and had to forage through the trees for pine cone food. We created new adventures for “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” waving balloons over our heads as our substitute aircraft.
We all contributed ideas to our emerging stories, letting each person use his imagination and have his turn determining what we would do next. This led to some rather odd storylines, but we were using our imaginations and each kid was positioning to be included. Rarely did we tell anyone that their idea was “dumb” – we just went with it. I think most of our ideas were so outlandish, that it really didn’t matter what someone else did or said. Looking back, it is interesting to see which kids became the leaders of the group, especially knowing where some of them are today and what they have done in life.
There were other times when we just broke off into smaller groups. We took our plastic toy soldiers, dug trenches in the dirt around the hibiscus bush, and then turned the hose on them, flooding the area, and forcing our toy soldiers to figure out an escape route from the rising water. I’m not sure why we had a fixation with flooding – as I said earlier, we had some strange, albeit creative, ideas. We also had a lot of the Troll Dolls that were popular at this time, and we created a city and a life for each of them. We used shoeboxes to make their houses, cutting holes for the door and windows, and lined them up in neat rows on the carpet. We used old scraps of cloth to make clothes for them, and sometimes took them outdoors to send them on a vacation, playing with them on the sidewalk. Everyone shared their toys and amazingly remembered to return the toys to the correct person when we were finished playing.
For the most part, if we had differences or fights, we worked them out ourselves without telling our parents. What they didn’t know – it never hurt them!
Where did we get all the ideas for our creative playtime? I’m not sure. We all read comic books – Superman, Spider-Man, The Hulk, and Iron Man were all popular super heroes. We watched astronauts board rockets that would launch them into space and eagerly waited to hear their stories when they returned. Star Trek and the Enterprise flew into our homes and we were mesmerized. Science and science projects were something every kid wanted to do, and it was considered cool to be part of the Science Fair at school.
Children normally begin their first “pretend” games between 18 and 24 months of age, and it is part of the development process. They may create imagery friends to help guide them through these early years. Imagining is a way to develop the brain for planning and anticipating future events. It is necessary for learning and teaches young children to ponder the future, and think about such things as what they want to do when they grow up.
As we grow, we learn to weigh imagination and reality. Imagination plays a role in our adult decision-making processes, and we need to have a healthy dose of both imagination and reality – and use it as a tool for creatively solving problems.
Here’s what I learned.
Everyone possesses the ability to imagine and it gives us the ability to look at any situation from different points of view. Imagination allows us to consider the past and the future.
Your imagination does not make you a daydreamer or impractical. It improves your creative abilities, and helps you manage your daily affairs, whether that is working on a business proposal, planning a vacation, or redecorating your home.
Imagination plays a role in everyone’s life.
Imagination can exercise your brain, keeping it younger and more active.
Its creative power can help you achieve success in your chosen field.
Use your imagination – and become everything you can imagine yourself to be.
I’m Barb Rankin and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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