Smokey Joe

(Sintra, Portugal: September 19, 2007)

What a day! The plan was to walk up a mountain to see two castles, and then come back down to town and go to the Toy Museum. After a bit of trying to guilt myself into going to see the castles, I decided to go to the toy museum first, and then see what I felt like doing afterward - knowing it would unlikely be climbing a mountain.

Sintra is a very small town so the whole Toy Museum was a bit of a crap shoot. Sure, the guide book said it was good, but it also gave a walking tour for 3 sections of Lisbon which was absolutely incomprehensible. I walk in and first thing I see? A giant dollhouse. I was in heaven! I wished it were higher off the ground, because my knees are old and creaky, but oh well. Only later did I realize everything was so low because children are their main clientele. Ha! The size of this dollhouse actually reminded me of the dollhouse I made when I was younger - in 7th grade - which coincided with the year I took wood shop! Ah, two good side stories.

So 7th grade was very exciting for me because I was out of that rinky dink elementary school and for the first time ever, I had choices! I was in charge of my educational destiny. I could choose 1. if I wanted to continue with band - or not. (I did). 2. if I wanted to speak a language. Yes, French please - which I still to this day think was the wrong choice. Spanish, people. Spanish! and 3. either Wood Shop or Home Ec. As if that's a choice! I can't imagine why in the world I would have wanted to take a class on cooking and sewing. I already knew how to do both well enough to get by, and hello - wood shop! I could use powertools and make things! So I, along with one other female Rebecca someone, took wood shop along with every guy in our grade - roughly 100. I took wood shop because I wanted to make things from wood. She took wood shop to flirt with every guy in the class. A pretty smart plan for someone I didn't consider to be all too bright. Then, at the end of the year when the whole school was in the auditorium getting end of year academic awards they announced the winner of the wood shop award: Sara Chieco. I nearly fell out of my seat. It's true at that age I paid a bit more attention to detail than my male counterparts (sanding is a time consuming task), and did better on the measurement tests, but a girl winning the award? Unheard of. I look back proudly on that moment today, but at the time I was completely and utterly mortified, and I'm sure was teased endlessly about being a lesbian.

Story #2 back to the dollhouse. Not much of a story, actually. I built myself a dollhouse, and it was GIANT. Not quite so giant as the one in the front of the museum, but I was no famous dollhouse maker, and it was absurdly huge. I hadn't planned it to be, it just turned out that way. Sure, I glued each wooden roof shingle on by hand, but this dollhouse in the museum has real red clay roof tiles! I did also put wallpaper on and had a staircase, but this one had an elevator. Mine was definitely the red-neck version. It never quite fit together perfectly, and I'm not sure it ever made it out of the basement. You know when you're just out of college, living in the real world and it seems like your mother makes up excuses to call you every week? I remember one such phone call: Hey, can we throw out that dollhouse yet? The cats have been using it to dispose of their unwanted dead prey bits. Yes mom, you can throw it out. Did I mention this dollhouse in the museum had a dollhouse inside of it?!? More like a diorama, but still. Oh, and the crowning touch: a full-on religious procession outside of the cobbled courtyard replete with strange religious figure on a pole.

Then next to it was an Eiffel tower taller than me built from an erector set. If I wasn't quite in heaven yet, I was now. This guy who I imagine I am supposed to know since he name was all over the place built it when he was 15, and they have re-erected it now, 65 years later. Unreal. I had an erector set! I loved messing around with screwdrivers when I was young. Have I told you the screwdriver story yet? When I was about 4 years old I took ballet classes. One time I went into class with a screwdriver in my pocket probably from playing with my erector set. The teacher found it (how did she find it?) and kicked me out of class! I had to go home as punishment. Go figure.

Other museum highlights include their visual history of Lego's. I wasn't around for the super fancy sets or anything (after my time), but they had ones with wheels, and transparent windshield-like pieces when I was little, and oh how I loved them. The museum had Japanese robots from the 50's. Joy, you would have freaked out. There were these really fancy old tricycles and mini cars and a mini Range Rover (?) and then next to them what looked like a few branches put together - titled 'Bicycle made by children in Tanzania'. Enough to make you cry, really. Sure there were some old dolls that were super creepy because all but a few tufts of their hair had fallen out in a terrible pattern, but overall the museum was truly amazing. I may not be a fan of trains or small military figures (sorry fellas), but there was plenty for me to enjoy. Something to check out if you haven't seen them already are Kokeshi dolls from Japan. Stunning.

Oh, and how could I forget Smokey Joe? A mean lean pressed tin fire fighting machine.