Current mood:	pleased
Current music:	something from the Samurai Jack cartoon

Full circle, with spinning wheels and all…
About a week or so ago, for no particularly good reason apart from curious nostalgia, I looked on eBay for the Fisher Price, Little People Castle. (The vintage version with parts that a child could choke on.)

It had been my favorite toy for quite a long time. I don't really think I expected to own it forever but I wasn't finished with it, in my estimation, when it left the house forever. My mother decided — about a year before she left the house for three years to vacation in a mental institution — that things would be better for our family if we were more charitable. (I should point out that we had steak about once a year.)

I can't say if she asked my sister which of her toys she'd be willing to part with. My brother was and he surrendered his Fisher Price Hospital. Well, it seems that his statement about not playing with it any longer set the notion in my mother's head that I was done with the castle.

I was not asked; I was told which toy of mine I was done with. I protested. I lost. My mother stated that she was quite well aware of all the pieces and that I'd better produce them all in ten minutes. She was going to have to prove she knew all the bits.

There was a little pink dragon to the set and I still have that (just that) from the set. I think I remember telling him that I wouldn't be seeing him any more and that I had to keep him safe. I think I was ten or so and it seems likely that's about when I started to realize my mother was psycho.

For decades, any time I was in any kind of toy store I'd look for the castle. There's a new one. I have one. My brother bought it for me (hmmm.) It's lame. About 30 years after losing the favored one, the eBay pictures reminded me what it really looked like. I almost cried. (The internet does that too much, I think.)

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has little arguments with themselves about eBay purchases. "Where are you going... what are you going to... this is silly... you don't need..."

I sent an email to Chris at work, more or less telling her this story for the first time.

She bought me a castle! It should arrive tomorrow.

http://www.thisoldtoy.com/L_FP_Set/toy-pages/900-999/993-castle.html

In return, I promise not to play with it in bed.