Growing up with Tonka Trucks and Ghostbusters...

One might assume from the title of this post that I am referring to AG growing up with Tonka Trucks and Ghostbusters. And while this is true this title is really a reference to my own childhood. Yesterday, I ran to Cartersville to grocery shop at Publix. (We don't have one in Rome and this week's deals were worth the 25min drive...but my grocery shopping/bargain hunting is a whole post by itself.) Since Publix is in the same shopping center as Target I ran in to see if they had anything good. While in the little boys section I came across two simple t-shirts. Now these two shirts remind me of three very important men in my life. My husband, my father, and my best friend David. This post focuses on David...

What can I say about David? He has been my best friend since before I can remember. (Along with Laura!) My childhood would not have been the same without him in my life. Our adventures are too numerous to count and I'm grateful that we are still friends to this day. David lived across the street from me growing up and Laura was down and around the corner. I learned a lot from David and was introduced to a wide variety of toys/games growing up because of him. For those of you who don't know I have all sisters...David was the brother that I never had growing up. So, when playing at David's we would tend to play more "boy-ish" games. This would include but was not limited to building forts in the woods behind David's house (this would include my only case of poison ivy to date!), learning how to climb with David's trusty rope (that he took everywhere...because you just never know when you might need to scale the brick wall of the front entrance, right?!), playing with David's various action figures like Ninja Turtles, the Fisher Price Air Port when we were really little along with Hungry, Hungry Hippos, watching great movies like Earnest Goes to Camp and Harry and the Hendersons, Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys, and this list could go on and on. However, there are two things that we enjoyed like no other...Tonka Trucks and Ghostbusters.

Really, it could be said that we enjoyed ANY cartoon. David and I watched them all Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Smurfs, Gummi Bears, Flintstones, Jetsons, Ducktales, Alvin and the Chipmunks, etc. David came over every morning before school so that we could ride the bus together. Even though his Mom, Miss La-La, worked at our school and could have easily have taken David in the mornings. (I still call his Mom that to this day...) While waiting on the bus every morning we would watch any of the afore mentioned cartoons. We loved watching 'em and let's face it they don't make 'em like they use to.

In order to make your Tonka experience a success one needs to have a nice supply of dirt. (And mothers that are okay with having a filthy child at the end of the day.) Since we grew up in GA our dirt is red and that meant we had clothes specifically to play in...because if it ended up caked in red GA clay it was not the end of the world. Especially in our house because with all girls we had distinct "sets of clothing". David's house was a gold mine in our eyes growing up for multiple reasons. Besides having plenty of space inside and out, great toys, and the best grilled cheese sandwiches (thanks Miss La-La!) David's house had a finished basement. But not just any finished basement. This basement was a great place to play in the winter because it had a wood burning stove in it. It was always warm and cozy. The basement also had lots of rooms and nooks that provided places to play. One such room was the perfect place to play with Tonka Trucks. Now, this room was like Narnia in the sense that from the outside it was just another door to any other room. But, when the door was opened it revealed an unfinished room with a large, and I mean LARGE, solid GA clay rock. It took us awhile to figure out a way to climb up to the top of the rock but once we did we hauled ALL of David's trucks to the top. Once on top the rock was a great place to play. Now to give you an idea of how big this rock was we couldn't sit straight up when on the top because our heads would hit the 1st floor above us. Instead, we army crawled around and pushed the trucks to and fro. This was an incredible place to play in the winter because we could play in the dirt and never go outside. Ha. I'm sure our mothers didn't enjoy it but we sure did. Many hours were spent up there over the years.

So, back to yesterday and me buying two t-shirts for AG. I couldn't pick which one I liked best because they both evoked strong memories of my childhood and my best friend. Lucky for me the price was right and I got both. Here's AG modeling his new shirts:

The following cracks me up because he was trying to figure out what Samson was doing...

To end I did say in the beginning that the shirts also reminded me of Andy and my Dad. Andy had a collection of Tonka trucks that he played with growing up, too. He also was an avid cartoon watcher...so much so that he was Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man for Halloween one year. (If that's not a true Ghostbusters fan I don't know what is...) As for my dad, my grandfather use to drive large machinery at construction sites and my dad would go to work and learn how to operate the equipment from my grandfather. He also had a collection of trucks that he use to haul dirt around his yard growing up. As a mom to a little boy I look forward to Tonka Trucks and Ghostbusters. Who knew two little t-shirts would evoke such wonderful memories from my own childhood?