You can spare me the emails. I know this is not a “politically correct” toy. Still, you must admit, he does look pretty darn cute wearing that vinyl belt, holster and plastic cap gun. Finally, I can take a shower without fear that I’ll reach for the soap, only to find it missing, again, from the soap tray. Unlike soap, the toy pistols don’t burn his eyes, or melt. I found this treasure at none other than, Wal Mart. Guns, Holsters and Caps — four thousand caps to be exact. With four boys shooting, the 4000 caps lasted a mere two days. (God, don’t you love the smell of a fired cap.)
The biggest squabble was the belt. Two belts for four guns, and who would have guessed the belt would have been the fashion item that carried the day. Rope wouldn’t do, real belts were too wide to slide the holster through, so there was quite a bit of whining and crying in the OK Corral.
Still, when I started the fort back in March, I never dreamed it would serve as real-life headquarters for re-loading ammunition.
Our children’s lack of exposure to the classic John Wayne movies became apparent when I heard them arguing over who the bad guys actually were. The older ones, who had the advantage of watered down American history lessons, were sure it was the cowboys who were the bad guys. The little ones assumed it was definitely the Indians. But they had to be sure, before they could start playing and claiming territory — shooting all the while they were claiming territories.
Eh – boys will be boys, right?
I LOVE your bean fort.
Yeah, totally un-PC. But then my dad played Cowboys and Indians, and he’s very peaceful and loving 🙂
There is just something about shooting that appeals to boys. My son will make guns, bows and arrows, etc. out of anything. We decided that our rule would be that guns are not toys, so we don’t allow actual toy guns. But if they make them up out of something, I won’t stop them. Some day we might take them hunting with real rifles, and I don’t want to cloud the issue of toy vs. weapon. (And please spare me the anti-hunting emails!)
Playing cowboys and indians is a right of passage for kids – not only boys. We used to have raging battles that stretched over several days. And none of us has even held a real gun, I don’t think. Besides, as henitsirk says, they don’t need the actual guns – I’ve seen little boys make them out of straws, legos, lincoln logs, whatever they could get their hands on.
It is impossible to keep boys away from toy guns. I never bought them one and they began using sticks in the backyard as guns. Go figure.
Besides, I always played with toy guns growing up and I am a very peaceful person. 🙂
And YES! I do love the smell of a fired capgun! Reminds me of my youth. 😉
Hey, they’ll just make one out of a saltine cracker (corner bitten off). One of the cutest pictures of Green Husband is when he was about five with one of those very same gun (I like to say pistols or six-shooters) holsters.
I love it that they were arguing over who the bad guys really were.
The fort is starting to look real neat!
Who cares about being politically correct? I think that’s freakin AWESOME! GO COWBOY!!!! YEE-HAW!
*GRIN*