Write Team: My boy pocket toys

I’m looking right now at a black arrowhead almost 2 inches long. It’s a chipped, knapped point given to me long ago by – was it my mother? – and it came from an antique store in the suburbs. I heard it cost a quarter.

We lived in Lombard then, and as a boy, I used to take the arrowhead to school as a toy. I could take it out and play with it during class. My time in elementary school was pretty much split up equally between: (a) looking at the blackboard and listening to the teacher, (b) looking out the window, (c) playing with whatever stuff I brought with me, and (d) watching the minute hand make its slow, dignified path on the big clock above the schoolroom door: It took forever.

I brought along a lot of stuff to school! I wonder if teachers ever check boys’ pants for contraband.

I used to lug around clear crystals of quartz that I’d gotten by trade from a friend who’d been to Arkansas. Or a beautiful piece of smooth, polished, petrified wood. I had a large button on string – a whirligig. Pull the string and make the button spin. Matchbox toy cars were often in tow, as well as Hot Wheels. I’d carry along a little flashlight sometimes, or a rabbit’s ear keychain, or a Cub Scout knife. There might be fancy rocks, pen knives, pocket watches or a little electromagnet I’d made by winding wire around a bolt.

One pretty cool thing I used to carry around to school was a little electric motor with a D-cell battery: Touch the wires and make it whirr. I got the little motor out of some electric gear I’d garbage-picked along the way home. I was pretty big on tearing apart electric stuff when I was 9 or 10.

All of this was to help kill the mind-numbing boredom of the classroom. I’m pretty sympathetic to the idea boys need to run around more during school hours. It’s just not right sitting all day.

A bit older, in junior high school, I might also take along matches and a lighter-fuel powered, Jonn-E handwarmer for the long cold walk home across town during the winter.

With the arrowhead here, I’m of course thinking about its journeys back and forth to Madison Elementary School. But ANYONE and EVERYONE would have these thoughts – how OLD is this arrowhead? Is it ancient? What did it kill? Deer? People? What was the person who made it really like? What was his daily life like?

This thing still is a bridge to the past in a really immediate way. Imagine relying on bows and arrows to hunt game – and then butchering and cooking it, and cleaning and using the hide. What was life like back then?

So really, Teacher, this is a pocket history lesson. I’m learning more about doing history, asking questions, than just taking notes on dates and remembering them for your test next Friday.

Todd Volker lives in Ottawa with his wife and son, and they enjoy reading, kayaking, hiking, tennis and camping. He’s a lifelong learner with books in his hands.