There is nothing that can really beat a ride on a train. PHOTO/FILE
IT IS a contention of mine that despite all the sophistication we can offer our children today, all the electronic toys, the iPads, Peppa Pig, the big-budget animation movies like Frozen, there is nothing that can really beat a ride on a train.
The Times-Age photographed the Masterton miniature train
operating over Easter weekend, and the steady crowd of adults and children proves that we shouldn't get ourselves into knots of despair because we balk at the idea of buying a $30 super-soaker water gun, or the latest offering from GI Joe. What I've generally observed is that, while children will marvel at an interactive, technological light-show at Te Papa museum, they will generally want to climb a large rock or marvel at sea shells on the waterfront.
The miniature train is a classic example of bringing a large, formidable object like a train down to the level of a child's world. Adults do much the same thing with model trains; it's creating a world on a scale that can be handled, or controlled.
Since we're descended from apes, scaling and climbing is a natural part of a child's life, and there is even research that suggests that as adults we suffer from shoulder problems because we neglect the skill that all apes do: dangling by your arms from a tree, with our muscles constantly worked and extended naturally. Children dangle like chimps from tree branches, although that too may be curtailed, if the new Health and Safety at Work Act gets interpreted in a certain way.
What is especially impressive about Masterton's miniature train -- and the ones that operate in Featherston's Clifford Square -- is that this is a volunteer service, by people who genuinely enjoy the hobby that is small trains, and want to share it. And this is another powerful lesson. As an adult, if you are genuinely enjoying doing something, the chances are good a child will enjoy doing it with you because a good mood and fun are infectious. What makes an adult happy usually makes a kid happy.
