Little Tikes Bus Scoot Toy (used)
Item Purchased: Little Tikes Bus Scoot Toy (used)
Location Purchased: Unique Thrift Store / 3000 S. Halsted St. / Chicago, IL
Price: $5.99 + tax
Purchased on: 04/19/08
Review: Like everyone else, I am susceptible to the desire to scrounge the local thrift store for ironic or otherwise humorous pieces of other people’s personal detritus. Most times, I try not to buy anything I won’t use on a regular basis and, most times, this isn’t a problem. The bulk of my thrift store purchases include clothing, records or the occasional coffee mug. Should I purchase something I will only use once, however, I can set my mind at ease with the thrift store mentality that states: this thing has been well used many times by many people, so I’m not really wasting anything. Indeed, thrift stores are one partial prescription for remedying our rampant disposable culture.
Even with all of this tiring preamble of excuse, you are probably still asking why I might possibly want a children’s scoot toy. Fair enough.
This scoot toy was sought out as a photo prop. That ridiculous photo you see of me squeezing my 28 year old ass into the toy’s cramped seat is all part of a larger project called YoungMeNowMe. You may have seen the project on BoingBoing.
YoungMeNowMe is a collaboration and competition developed for Ze Frank’s new experiment, Color Wars 2008, which is meant to emulate the friendly competition of the summer camps of our youth. Through a series of low-effort activities, teams earn points, collaborate and basically just have fun during the stray hours of the day. There are prizes, but in the end, the prizes don’t matter as much as the fun that is to be had.
The YoungMeNowMe competition asks participants to pick a photograph of themselves as a very young child and recreate it in a current photo. The results span from hilarious to sweet, but beyond the comedic value of bringing strangers together with laughter, the YoungMeNowMe project has a side effect of sending participants down a path of reminiscence that could possibly bring family members closer for just a few moments. I, for example, did not have any pictures of myself as a young child. The initial call to my mother was a little awkward as I tried to explain what I needed baby photos for, but after she searched and scanned, she admitted feeling nostalgic and bittersweet from paging through photos that had sat, collecting dust, for years.
Harmless online fun leads to connections both new and old, inspires creativity and laughter, and produces the side effect of a recycled purchase from a local business. For that, the purchase was worth it.
As for the plastic scoot toy, I shall either donate it back to the thrift store from which it came or help out a local tike seeking sidewalk mobility.
Oh, I almost forgot. You can contrast and compare my photos below, but I highly recommend visiting the YoungMe/NowMe gallery and glancing through the rest.
(YoungMeNowMe gallery)
Rating: 4.25 / 5
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
What- no overalls now?! (are those Grrranimals?)
I say this as kindly as possible:
Girlfriend + kid’s toy in home= you figure it out.
Evict toy from home or face certain impregnation.
Snicker.