I am jack's childhood...

So lately I’ve been listening to this fantastic podcast that I recently discovered the GenY Retrocast. Its hosted by some really nice guys and they talk about all the fun stuff that I remember from being a kid. As a rough guideline, you might say they talk about everything from the start of Transformers to the end of Nirvana; effectively my youth. It’s a great show that I’d really recommend everyone check it out. Unfortunately they’re going through something of a transitional phase right now, so the future of the show is a bit up in the air, but its really really still worth checking out. I’ve been working my way through the back catalog and really loving it.

So, because these GenY guys Michael, and Gavin have inspired me, and because I really just like it, I decided that the absolute best thing for me to do yesterday while I had a few fleeting minutes over at my parents house, was to go up to their loft-like attic crawl space above the garage and check through the 30 or so boxes to find my long lost Battle Beasts. Yes that’s right; I said Battle Beasts. They were this semi-obscure toy from back in the day that I totally loved, although I didn’t really think anyone else knew them until Michael brought them up on their very first episode on the retrocast.

Picture it if you will, here I am above the garage hunting through tons of random boxes. I mean this isn’t the house I grew up in, I never packed these boxes, I have no clue how they were packed or where they might be. There’s really only room for two extra box moves, so it’s like that damn slider game where you have to move the pieces to make the picture and you’ve only got the one free square. I’m up here shifting one box to get to the next box. Working my way inside these mountains of boxes. I can’t stand up straight cause I’m at the top of a low A frame, and I’ve only got this single bulb 100 watt light which while blaringly hot when near is harder and harder to see as I move forward into the heart of the boxes. I’m sweating as I look through every box I can find. Of course I had to be wearing my favorite shirt, a black Armani Exchange dress shirt. And its about halfway into the belly of this cardboard beast that I stop for just a second and start to think.

What the hell am I doing?! I mean really, what the hell am I doing digging through boxes to find some lost old toy from 15 years ago. I mean I want it, I really want it. I want to play with them and look at them again, but I know I can’t keep them, I can’t take them to my apartment. You think Erica wants like 30 Battle Beasts hanging out in the corner of our place?! Of course not. I know they’re in there I’ve already found the box full of just G.I. Joe vehicles. Seriously my parents seem to have boxed up everything. The Skystorm X-Wing, the Rolling Thunder, and maybe the biggest toy I ever owned the G.I. Joe Mobile Command Center all just sitting there waiting for me to grab them. I had passed a bag full of Hot Wheels, and old Spider-Man figures. You wouldn't believe how much Power of the Force stuff I have, and further on in the back I swear I saw the box to Castle Greyskull...I mean there was so much random crap there that I had already made my way through, seriously I'm not listing even a small potion of it. And I couldn't help but marvel at how ridiculous I am. Not just 'cause I had all this stuff, 'cause really everyone had toys, but because I still want to play with it all. I mean really I want to just play.

I would never be such an a prick to say that I' m trying to recapture my youth (something about that just pisses me off), but I would easily say that I never grew up. I mean I'm not a huge toy collector or anything, but I'll tell you, I know for a fact that even at my apartment where I've only lived for the past 7 months, I've got a drawer full of toys. Including A robot cat, the green arrow, a lego knight and random ninja figurines.... where the hell did all this stuff come from?! I mean the majority of my dvd collection consists of old cartoons. And I have a bookshelf full of comic books. I know there's nothing wrong with it, I'm not upset about it. not really... Sometimes I just get amazed at how much of a kid I am still.

I think I get it, you know... I mean I think I get that it's really all a lie, or more accurately a joke. There is no magic time, afterwhich all of a sudden you're a grown up. People just pretend to be adults... right? Sometimes I get a bit worried that it's just me pretending. And probably doing a pretty bad job of it too. I was halfway through looking into these boxes and I had to stop, it was just too big a job, and I wasn't even sure why I was doing it. Should I really be wanting to play with my toys all the time? I think I am going to have to do it someday. go through all those boxes, and pretty soon too. I need to actually pull everything down from there, sort through it all. and find my Battle Beasts. Maybe I'll figure out what I'm supposed to do once I have them.

Whatever.... stupid over-dramatization.