We All Live in a Four-Inch Long Baking Powder Powered Submarine...

Okay, my title doesn't play as well as The Beatles' lyrics, but this thing is loads of fun. Thanks to friend and fellow author Bert Carson, I am now in possession of my very own diving sub. No muss, no fuss, hours of entertainment for those ages six and up (me included), and it fits quite neatly into one of my mixing bowls. All I need now is the skipper's hat.

To clarify, I received my diving sub for agreeing to be the captain of Bert's blogging team. Now that I've played with the sub, I think I got the better end of this deal. (I'm still waiting on the decoder ring, but maybe Bert's having trouble decoding it.)

How can a toy requiring no batteries generate fun? Watch and learn:

A tiny sub, a little baking powder, and a deep bowl. Too cool.

Still confused? It's all about the imagination, folks. I spent a great deal of my childhood obsessing over decoder rings, solving imaginary mysteries, and making mud bowling balls to roll down the swing-set slide. What a glorious addition a baking powder sub would've been.

Those were the days, eh? Wooden blocks became castles. Mud pies formed majestic feasts. A stick and a piece of wood made a fine sword and shield, and empty boxes built fabulous forts.

I kind of feel sorry for the kids whose toys are all battery powered or require charging, but I'll bet if the batteries ran out and the charging stations ran dry, even those kids could enjoy a baking powder powered submarine.

Is it just me, or does anybody else remember a time when toys required imagination-power?

 
(Sorry the video is so cloudy - that's the natural gas bubbles in our water. Yes, you can set the water that comes out of our tap on fire. Guess that comes from living in a part of the country where natural gas wells and pipelines are everywhere and fracking is ever present. But that's another blog post.)