Simple Toys Can Bring the Most Joy

When I was a little girl, I made dolls and furniture out of paper (“Toy Story,” by Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Jan. 15). My mom was a struggling single mother of five. We lived with my aunt, uncle and cousins. For me, playing with little pieces of paper was a way to dream about having a house and things of our own.

Now I have a 1 1/2-year-old son, and my husband and I can buy him whatever toys we want. But I have noticed that he is the happiest when playing with my Tupperware, large empty detergent containers and empty boxes.

Lilly Reidhammer

Highland

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Thank you for the photo essay showing how creative kids can be, even when they have little to work with. I grew up in a farm town, and even though my family was well-off and I had more toys than I could use, my friends and I got a kick out of doing much the same thing as the boys and girls in the photos. In fact, the town dump was one of our favorite places.

But one image was disturbing: the basketball hoop in Oceanside, Calif., right here in America. In every case but this one, the children who were inventing their own toys lived amid the poverty of disadvantaged countries. In the wealthiest society in the history of mankind, a child should have the choice to make his own toys but should not have the choice made for him and his family to live in Third World squalor. They deserve better than that. So do all of us.

Richard Mallery

North Hollywood

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Bartletti’s piece reinforces my belief that the unfettered mind is the most resourceful tool in the universe. Those who depend on computers for creativity are hindered by its limitations. Free yourself. Get out and play!

Neil Proffitt

Redondo Beach