Remembering Mr. Machine

Iphone, Ipads, X-Boxes, Wii this and Wii that...do non-electronic toys exist anymore?

My friends with small and teenage children have all been gasping at this years Santa Lists.  Most everything on them is top dollar electronics.  And it got me to thinking.

Ah to grow up in the 60's.  Christmas was such a magical time in our house.  My 2 sisters and brother could barely sleep on Christmas Eve, all of us betting who would be the one that would spot Santa...until, of course, we fell asleep before he came down the chimney.  Actually, we didn't have a chimney.  Santa came thru our sun room.  Hey...he never got stuck!

The Christmas morning I remember the most was the year we woke up, ran out to the living room, and BEHOLD (!) there they were...3 beautiful Easy Bake Ovens!  My sisters and I each were born a year and a half after each other.  I was the middle and my brother was the baby who came along 2 years after my younger sister.  Us girls loved the same things and we all wanted that easy bake oven! 

Easy Bake Ovens, at that time, baked with a lightbulb (!)...and we made dime shaped cakes and brownies all Christmas Day.  You could even make bubble gum in your easy bake oven in the 60's!

Now to my brother.  The toy every little boy wanted that year was "Mr. Machine".  He was a little Robot that would walk across the room.  This was our " high tech stuff...and Mr. Machine was a learning toy too...you could take him apart with the special Mr. Machine tools and put him back together, every little boys dream!  All you would have to say to my brother in the weeks leading up to Christmas that year was "What do you want from Santa"...and he would scream "Mit-ter Mat-tene!!!"

My parents decided to let him open all his other gifts from Santa that morning and have Mr. Machine walk into the leaving room to meet him under the tree.

All of a sudden, as my little baby brother ripped thru another package, that was NOT Mr. Machine, the shrill sounds of a 1960's motorized toy came into the living, and there...!...was Mr. Machine, making his way to my brother......

Who looked up...made eye contact with the toy...and ran screaming into my mothers arms...."no, no, get it away"!  My brother Michael was absolutely petrified of the toy he dreamed of night after night.

Once he calmed down, he took it apart and hid most of the pieces so it could never run again. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MUCH LOVE TO YOU AND YOURS!!!