A little bit about me
Hi, my names Jim.
I’m a Dad to two sons, Donald and Jim Jr., and my baby girl Grace, and a Grandpop to four energetic little boys, Simon, Mark, Ian and Vincent.
The Story Of The Wooden Garage
When I was a boy, I played for hours and hours with a wooden toy garage that my dad had made for me.
It wasn’t fancy, it had a ramp in from “the street” (the carpet), a parking bay at the front and 2 detachable ramps on either side so you could drive up onto the upper deck and then down again the other side.
During my early years this was my favourite toy. One day I would be a garage owner, the next day I would be test driving all the cars in the garage (yes, I was, and still am a car nut), the day after that I would own a car washing facility. Each day would bring some new adventure.
Every so often a new toy would come along that grabbed my attention, and the garage would be put to one side. But after a couple of weeks I always went back to my favourite.
In the end I grew out of playing with my garage and went on to discover real cars and, dare I say it, girls! The garage got discarded and was forgotten.
Forgotten that is, until one day I visited my Dad with little Donald, and after chatting with my Dad for a bit realised that Donald was very quiet and I was conscious that I hadn’t seen him for a bit. We eventually found him, playing upstairs in what used to be my old bedroom, with my old garage!
Dad had kept it all these years and it still looked as good as new.
Well, okay, maybe there were a few knocks, scratches and scrapes it had succumbed to over the years, but it was still in excellent condition.
Lots of other toys had come and gone, but this simple little toy that had given me so much joy over the years was now being enjoyed by my son as well.
I looked at Dad and I could see he was immensely proud.
I want to be as proud as my Dad and I want to create memories like that.
Selfish, maybe. But we’re all selfish little buggers in some way or another.
This is what drives me to create great wooden toys, toys that will last. And it is the same reason for starting this blog, so that I can help, in whatever way, other Dads like me who want to create some lasting memories.
Jim