Hommel Mangas
“Good job, John,” I encouraged my 14-month-old grandson as he set the car loaded with wooden “people” down the garage ramp.
“Wheee!” — he mimicked my words as the vivid orange one-seater swirled down the ramp and across the living room floor.
The 1970 vintage Fisher-Price Play Action Garage with cars and wooden figures are a part of our family legacy. It’s currently residing “on loan” in my home until its rightful owner, my youngest brother Chris, who was born in 1973, calls“ownership dibs.
It’s a miracle that the garage elevator continues to lift cars up to the third parking garage level and the bell still rings. The set provided a half a century of fun for Chris and us six older siblings, not to mention the dozens of children our mom cared for while their parents taught school or practiced medicine, plus 26 grand- and great-grandchildren. And that’s not even counting all of the neighborhood kids that came over to play.
Did I mention that the bell still rings — most of the time — and on the third floor the elevator bottom lifts to dump the car down the ramp?
I couldn’t help notice those features when I lined up a long, front-to-back row of the yellow/white, green/white, orange/white and blue/white cars that John separates, making sure the cars aren’t touching. I wonder if maybe it’s a familial tendency from his father and grandfather, owners of Tillman’s Vehicle Accessories, not to scratch the paint job on the vehicles.
Then I noticed that John has packed all 18 people in the banana-yellow Fisher-Price school bus, that actually only has seat-holes for seven. I refrain from any safety lessons, especially after looking down inside the open-top bus and seeing the blue wooden man, wearing a yellow cowboy hat and orange bandana, smiling back at me.
The blue lady with a yellow ponytail, laying sideways crammed up against the unopened bus door labeled “OPEN” is smiling. Even the freckled-face, green-bodied boy with the red-pan with handle on his head is smiling. I instantly have questions — like why in over 50 years have I never noticed this green boy with a red pan on his head?
The family legacy of play continues. And if anyone knows the story of the Fisher-Price green boy with a red pan on his head — please let me know.
Janet Hommel Mangas grew up on the east side of Greenwood. The Center Grove area resident and her husband are the parents of three daughters. Send comments to [email protected].
