Subject:
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Re: How did you come out of your Dark Ages?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.people
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Date:
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Sat, 25 Nov 2000 09:51:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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627 times
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David!! Your story is so similar to mine!!...
I don't remember a moment in my childhood when I didn't have my LEGO
out and ready to build. In 87 we moved from Calgary, Alberta to
Denmark, and two years later moved back to Canada, but to Vancouver. I
started high school, and quickly found out that LEGO was uncool. It got
put away, and pulled out again for a science project in grade 9, and
never really got put away. I'd hide it from my parents and friends as
best I could, but it got difficult hiding large MOCs in a small room. I
suppose I was about as far into my Dark Ages as I was going to get.
This lasted til the Star Wars sets came out and I declared publicly
that I was going to buy them, regardless of parental opinion. I bought
them. And started building. And building...
...it's almost 2001, 2 years after Star Wars LEGO was introduced and my
LEGO collection is now at least 7 times what it was, and I had alot to
begin with. I'm running out of space to keep it all, and have had to
put a stop to my buying... I do know one thing, though... the LEGO is
here to stay. It's not getting packed away again... (well, ok, it will
if I move to a larger place...)
Claus Thiim
#643
In article <G4K9wF.4xL@lugnet.com>, David Eaton <deaton@intdata.com>
wrote:
> My dark ages started sometime around '88. I was 12, and as I recall, some of
> my friends were telling me I was a little immature to have bunches of Lego
> still lying around. Of course I always told them I never played with them,
> being the brave soul I was; wait till they were gone, then build vast armies
> of cool spaceships and castles.
>
> However, I while I could hide it from my friends, I couldn't hide it from my
> parents. They became increasingly worrisome with my fixation on childhood
> toys when I was supposed to be getting into computer games, girls, music,
> movies, and whatever else they thought I was supposed to like. Eventually
> they cornered me on it: "You don't really WANT to still have those old Legos
> in your room, do you? I mean, you don't PLAY with them anymore, RIGHT?" And,
> again, being the brave soul I was: "Uh... no?" So the Lego promptly got put
> up in the attic, and I took up computer programming in applesoft basic for
> the next few years, satisfying my desire to build at least SOMETHING.
>
> Then, in 1992, my first glimmer of re-emergence to the Lego world appeared.
> I snuck into the attic, retrieved a box, and hid it in my room. I couldn't
> put it ALL in my room, but I could hide one box, I figured. It worked for a
> while. But the look on my mother's face when she opened a drawer in my room
> and found little minifigs in a box was enough to tell me that she did NOT
> think it was normal or welcome. Very important fact for later on.
>
> Anyway, in '93 I had a school project for math class. We were supposed to
> demonstrate mathematical principles for some everyday object. Naturally, I
> chose Lego. It was a great cover up story. I could play with my Lego, and
> blame it on school, without fear of embarassment. But the project came and
> went. I didn't put the Lego away, but my cover for that was of course that I
> just hadn't gotten around to it yet. But when I was caught building a big
> castle, I just had to find an excuse. "I was building it for Matthew!" (My
> little brother, then 6 years old) So I promptly had to follow through with
> that story and show my little brother all the glories of Lego, hoping with
> all I could muster that he wouldn't want it and end up getting it from me.
>
> But fortunately for me, he didn't want it. He was rather bored with Lego.
> And I went on building. I built a few things, but mostly hid them and didn't
> show them off. But finally, in 1995, I built something I just couldn't
> resist showing off. An AT-AT. Not the same one as seen on my page, no. A
> MUCH simpler, plainer looking one. Pretty silly looking, I suppose, looking
> back on it. But I had to show it off. That was pretty much the first public
> 'coming out' I had. I also did a 2x3 portrait of Homer Simpson, and showed
> that off too. I quite clearly had the building bug.
>
> But I was still too ashamed to buy sets. I'd go to different stores, even
> pick different clerks who I hadn't had before so they wouldn't recognize the
> wierd teenage guy buying Lego sets. Whenever I had access to a car, and the
> coast was clear, I'd rush out, buy a set (I was afraid to go to the checkout
> register with more than 1... that way I always at least had the excuse that
> it was for a birthday present), and sneak it back in without my parents or
> anyone else knowing. My biggest buying binge was when my parents went away
> for a week. I went out and bought a set or two every night! But I was still
> secretive about it.
>
> But it was only upon the discovery of LUGNET, RTL and really the online Lego
> community that I really became a Lego fanatic. And ever since my outlook has
> changed drastically. I now take a bit of pride in buying sets at the store.
> I welcome the odd glances that people sometimes give me and am even eager to
> answer them and explain my bizarre hobby. And the rest, as they say, is history.
>
> DaveE
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: How did you come out of your Dark Ages?
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| (...) My dark ages started sometime around '88. I was 12, and as I recall, some of my friends were telling me I was a little immature to have bunches of Lego still lying around. Of course I always told them I never played with them, being the brave (...) (24 years ago, 25-Nov-00, to lugnet.people)
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