David and I like to take the kids to the mall at night. It allows us the opportunity to look at a bunch of stuff we can’t afford and the kids get to run around and burn off energy. Not to mention it allows us to act as natural birth control to all those hormonal teenagers. They take one look at us and think “Oh, I don’t want to have kids – really.” On a recent visit we explored a new toy store. The kids found the new updated version of the View Master and David and I couldn’t resist saying yes to the purchase. We both fondly remembered traveling to distant places and the wonder and beauty of the View Master slides. Knowing that my mother never throws away anything that we might have even touched as a child I called her to see if she had our old View Master slides. Indeed she did, and being a good Grandma she overnight expressed them to our house from Michigan because the thought of her grandkids existing even one day without those slides was disastrous. Not to mention the joy of knowing that her own child actually WANTED one of their old toys back resulted in urgent and panic filled packaging.

Well, the package arrived yesterday and my mother did not disappoint. Not only did she mail me our original two View Masters, but the boxes and about 150 View Master slides. I have to admit that I think David and I enjoyed this package more than the kids. We stayed up until 11:00 last night looking at slides of the Las Vegas Strip in 1968 (The Flamingo? Circus Circus?), The Hoover Dam, The Partrdige Family, Happy Days, Shazam, The Banana Splits, The Apollo 11 project and endless numbers of space slides. They were awesome. They completely transported me back to my childhood and this morning I haven’t decided if I’m actually going to share them with the kids.