Background
On the theme of lost creativity (see the post on A Day at the Beach), we talked about sandcastles.
When I grew up in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, it was a time when life was simpler. It was a time of reading Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. The Hardy Boys were breathtaking adventures in lands of adventure. Television was not generally available in homes except for maybe a couple of channels with antenna reception (“rabbit ears”). On a good day, we might get a reasonable black and white image on a tiny screen. Usually the library books were more interesting!
Making Do
A few pieces of lumber, nails, bolts and old wheels from a dilapidated wagon became a go-kart. With our masterpiece ready, we dragged it up a local road (complete with blind corners) and off we went! We had no money or expertise to motorize our kart: gravity must suffice!
As for brakes? The best we could invent was a piece of 2×2 lumber that we affixed to the edge of the kart with a big bolt. Pulling on the “brake handle” would slow us down enough to avoid careening off the edge of the roadway. The brake also helped slow us down enough to avoid any wayward cars venturing on to our racetrack.
Seeds Planted
But those days were the seeds of imagination, reimagining life, creativity and innovation. The seeds of R&D sprouted from those early days.
Never lose sight of the value of small seeds … tiny seeds can grow large plants to feed many.
