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Wood Toys

When we were kids and growing up money was tough to come by and so my father used to make these beautiful wood toys for me and my sisters. I still have many of these wood toys today in the basement, needless to say when I show my kids it they dont even give it a second glance...

My father has always spent his time making all kinds of wood toys. My mother would always say that dad was tinkering in the garage. Once he was retired he started working with wood. At first he made larger pieces of wood furniture. The pieces were very nice and well made, however as Dad got older he did not like having to hand the large pieces. He had many small pieces of wood scrapes left.

He started making wood toys out of the scrapes. The first item he made was a wooden duck that had wheels. He placed a length of narrow colorful nylon rope around the duck’s neck so that the duck could be pulled by the child playing with it. Dad made several of the ducks, but then he wanted to try something else.

My sister and I bought our dad some wood working tools as well as carving knifes for his birthday. Our other sister gave him a gift certificate to a local hobby shop.

He was pleased with the gifts and said that maybe he could find patterns for different wood toys. My Dad’s birthday is in March.

That Christmas we were all amazed at the wood toys that he gave our children for gifts. He had learned to do a variety of shapes and also did some wonderful carving and wood burning on the wood toys. With the wood burner he put each child’s initials on their toy.

There were pull toys, trains, a wood doll house and animals. Dad and Mom stated that they were going to start making additional wood toys together and try to sell them at various craft sales.

They started doing this three years ago. This has been a great retirement adventure for them. They spend time making, painting and finishing the wood toys and then they travel to different areas in the region selling them. Later they stated making wood shelving, wood chips, wooden furniture, wood heaters and even wooden gates for sale.

They sell them at arts and craft sales that are held in different towns. They spend two months of the winter in their recreational vehicle in warmer climates selling their things at flea markets.

They are making some supplemental income and they are enjoying meeting new people and seeing other areas of the country. We are so glad that they have found something that they enjoy doing that gets them out and about with other people.

So many people that retire seem to get very set in their ways and do not like to vary from their routines. Mom and Dad are enjoying their retirement years and they are bringing joy to children with their simple wood toys.

It would be nice to bring back those days and get my kids to appreciate wood toys and other items made from wood. I was thinking maybe if I invest in some woodworking tools they might get interested then, they do love tinkering with the tools for my car.