Nostalgia Rules! A Lego Story

In light of the blizzard that has struck the northeast, I am re-printing this story (slightly edited) from my old "Stunk's Stage" blog (as briefly explored here). This is a great, innocent tale, and I never tire of telling it or reading it. I thank God for memories like this one.

I have to be honest; I'm somewhat shocked at the tone I was able to encapsulate in this 2007 re-telling, as if I had channeled my most sincere childlike voice to relay a picture from my past. I kind of wish I still had that voice from time to time. Perhaps, again, I will find it.

For Lego fans or simply those who like a good ol' time, this piece may be worth a little read while the snow's still thawing in the Wilms, Dee (and surrounding states).



The below content was originally posted at 
http://www.stunksstage.com/2007/10/10/toy-stories-the-lego-blizzard/ 
on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 4:30 am

TOY STORIES: The Lego Blizzard

By Christopher Stunkard

I was recently e-mailed by my good friend, Aaron; and after responding to him, I began to reminisce about some of the good old times he and I had as kids. We used to duel each other for hours with wooden swords. We’d watch G.I. Joe: The Movie on nearly a weekly basis. We’d joust with the cardboard tubes carpets are rolled on. There were plenty of fun times, [one of which] I will never forget, [during] a blizzard that trapped me at Aaron’s house a whole weekend.

It was supposed to be a sleepover like any other Friday Night. At the time, we were around 9-11 years old (I think it was 1993), and our toys of choice at the time were Legos and Star Trek (even though at that point I had still only seen like 4 episodes of The Next Generation). Anyway, we had spent Friday building excellent Federation Starships, each of which were captained by Lego figures of us. We both had crews of around 20-30 lego dudes, and it was good stuff. Aaron even had Battle Beasts we used for villains in the mix. When we had played enough, we crashed. It was good.

The next morning we awoke, expecting to hang for an hour or two maybe before I was to be picked up by my parents. We realized quickly however that the world we knew, usually green, was now covered in blanketed freshly-fallen, deep snow. I could not be picked up. We were trapped–[which] meant more Legos and more fun.

And fun it was. I don’t remember much in the way of details, only that we knew we had hours-a-plenty to burn, and burn them we did. Space battles, crash-landings, mass-crew-murders, and perhaps even turmoil between our allied forces were replayed time and time again. It was excellent. I believe that we destoryed about a half dozen starships between the two of us, and it was amazing. Saturday came and went with the joy of phasers, laser, tasers and the cries of war. I think we broke for lunch, dinner, and a half-hour of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Other than that, it was intergalactic warfare to the edge of space.

Saturday came and went. Sunday arrived as it always does. When we awoke and headed to the kitchen for breakfast, we found his parents on the phone, going through their church directory, calling [members] to cancel church. The snow was still fully caked to the gound, and no sign of open roads lay in site, which was fantastic news to us. We returned to Aaron’s room and began our space odyssey anew, happy to avoid both church and being parted.

The details of the weekend are hazy. I’m unsure if I got home Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. I forget if we [realized] that we could pop the Lego men’s arms and legs off in order to show the Battle Beasts ripping them limb-from-limb. I’m not even sure if we wanted to stay friends at the end of the weekend [cause] we were tired of each other. All I remember is how good it was to be trapped with my good friend, with [thousands] of Legos, having space adventures across the galaxy. It was a wonderful time of toys, probably a high influence on why I still love them so much to this day. I’d like to thank Aaron’s parents again for haivng me over, the makers of Lego for creating wonderful space products, and God for the snow. You all had a major part in [one] of the greatest weekends in the history of my life.