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Yesterday I had a neat experiance with my in-laws who were over for the
afternoon. First a little background. My in-laws are well aware of my LEGO
addiction and I have always felt a bit uncomfortable around them because I got
the definite fealing they thought it was a bit odd. On the other hand it was
a great convinence to them when my 5 year old nephiew is getting out of hand
because they usually just say go play LEGO (they say "play with your Legos" -
cringe) with your uncle Eric. I don't mind it that much although I don't think
they understood that I don't "play" with LEGO I build/model with LEGO. The
playing is OK but it doesn't get the creative juices flowing.
Anyway everyone was over yesterday and as usual my LEGO was put way for the
day. I actually forget how it came up but my wife actually asked me if I
wanted to show them the stuff I had been working on. I kind of gave her a
strange little look and then I though why not.
So I went into the basement (with my nephiew of course) to get the
Medieval/Castle stuff (and some LEGO for my nephiew) that was packed into 3
different boxes. I was trying to decide what would cause the least looks of
worry for my sanity. I decided to bring up my Inn first I then staked out a
bit of floorspace just around the corner from where they were all sitting and
only a couple of them could see it. Needless to say my nephiew was not very
impressed with my boring Inn so he was not causing much of a ruckus.
I then started playing with my nephiew with some odd boxes of unsorted LEGO I
got out for him. Next thing I hear is "Oh my G*D is that LEGO!" I look up and
there is my sister-in-law gawking at my Inn. I say "Yes". She says "You did
that by yourself". I say "Yes" again. Then all of a sudden everyone is
standing over the Inn with very strange and impressed looks on their faces.
Then my Nephiew's parents are saying "Don't touch that" and "Don't break that"
to my Nephiew.
Then once the initial excitement died down I got to telling them about my other
creations and I of course had to show them off so the whole Medieval village
ended up getting set up and the Church was a huge hit with my Mother-in-Law and
the Town Wall was a hit with my nephiew. My mother-in-law even started taking
pictures of the setup and said "If you want some pictures I can get them for
you". I then very politely said "Thanks, but I have some pictures already that
I put up on the internet" which of course sparked a whole different
conversation.
I even took out a couple other MOC's that I still had and my brother-in-law who
is an engineer really liked my 2 legged walker.
Now they all think my "hobby" is great and that I might not be as crazy as they
thought.
If you want to see the stuff I was showing them just look on my home page...
http://www.nelug.org/members/kingsley/
Everything is there except for the city wall which you can see an early version
of here as well as a slight change to my inn that I have made (I will be
posting an offical page soon)...
http://www.nelug.org/members/kingsley/temp/PIC00019.JPG
A couple of interesting things about my Nephiew though was he wanted me to show
him how to do a roof. He still has not got the concept of staggering bricks
for stength yet so it was hard to explain. I think he got a little bit of the
staggering down but when he started working on a wall he just started stacking
bricks again. I then helped him with a couple courses of bricks staggering
bricks and explaining the concept to him and how it added strength. I then
left him alone for a while and came back and everything was stacked again. Oh
well he is still learning so in time I am sure he will get the concept.
My nephiew also asked me once if I had any wheels so he could build a car. I
said do I have wheels for you. I then went and got a hugh box of wheels for
him which he had to show his parents. I didn't tell him they came from my
junk/mostly useless parts collection but I did tell his parents that once you
start collecting LEGO you end up with more wheels than you could ever need and
most adults think they are close to worthless. Granted if you have a modern
town they have a little value but I would guess even then you have more than
you could ever need.
Lastly my nephiew found one of my McDonald's sets and he asked if he could
build it. I said yes and then watched him build it and cringed every time a
sticker went on. Luckly the stickers peeled right off after he left :-).
Well I have rambled long enough there is a lot more I could right but I won't
continue to bore you. I just thought this was a very neat experiance and an
enlightening one for everyone involved including myself.
Eric Kingsley
The New England LEGO Users Group
http://www.nelug.org/
View My Creations at:
http://www.nelug.org/members/kingsley/
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