Hear Jim’s story: https://youtu.be/wEegSYk_b64

or read his transcript below:

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Life, actually…

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LEGO MY JACKS AND SET ME FREE TO TRIP UP THE WORLD

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“Ow!”

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The hardwood floor vibrates as a heavy foot hops.

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“Ouch!”

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There’s that adult voice bellowing pain, bouncing off the plaster ceiling of our tiny home many decades ago.

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I’m in deep trouble, so I slouch my way into the living room to find my mother sitting and rubbing her foot.

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Mom frowns at me, “Somebody left your sister’s jacks on the floor!”

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I am the only kid on hand. I have to take the heat.

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You see, my trusty Reader, this incident happened so long ago I’ve lost count. But it has a familiar ring.

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I recall loving parents carefully instructing small children to pick up their Legos and place them at a safe distance from adult bare feet. This is very recent.

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Hard plastic Legos and other improvised prickly devices (IPDs?) such as six-pointed jacks hide out under chairs and beds and counters and tv trays. Just waiting to attract human fragility. They tend to wax and wane as fashions visit and revisit.

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Fortunately for kids, there’s always some newfangled toy on the market to replace hidden Legos and jacks and Tinkertoys and Erector sets and Lincoln Logs and marbles and toy soldiers.

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There is always something available to attract tender feet.

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Maybe the Ouch! and Ow! exclamations are part of the game, the game of scattering tiny landmines onto unsuspecting floors for the entertainment of small kids who just want to see what happens next when playtime turns boring.

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I suppose IPDs will always be around. Just as long as self-entertaining young’uns strew their gags and gadgets onto fertile territory

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© Jim Reed 2025 A.D.