Reminders of Dinky times
As our bus rolled through a street construction site this evening, I watched the fellow on his small bulldozer, rolling back and forth to pack down a layer of sand. After all, the better the base is packed, the longer the road will last.
Every kid who ever dragged a box of Dinky toys outside to the sandy area near the front porch knows that rule of engineering. I wonder what will happen in the next generation; my sons don’t know the world of Matchbox. The world of Warcraft won’t be as useful when it comes to basic road building skills.
I was never rich enough to own a lot of Matchbox miniatures. If I had, and I’d kept them in their original boxes and not played with them, I would be richer today. But, methinks, not as rich in common sense. Our neighbour had a large family, around ten children I think, and THEY had Dinkies. Boxes full; some missing wheels, the paint often eroded down to bare metal (yes, Johnny, the toys weren’t just made from plastic back then). The sandpit was just below, but not under, their front step, and the sun always shone. I don’t ever remember building roads in the mud…
We provided our own sound effects; in those days trucks didn’t have those infernal beepers in reverse mode, so it was easier on all of us. We knew that you had to slow down for the corners; sand roads do that. Our bridges never collapsed unless we wanted them to.
Quebec is in shock after the collapse of a viaduct near Montreal this weekend. People died, but the belief that our road system is secure also took a hard hit. On the bus, fifty people stare hard at the infrastructure as we cross under and over on the autoroute. Will our bus be engulfed in tons of poorly anchored concrete. Even the politicians, quick to find and angle that paints the other guy with a dirty paintbrush, realize that this story is going to last more than a day or two.
Given that the Matchbox world is no longer there to serve as a model, what will our roads be like a generation from now, when the builders are great with a joystick but less so with a bulldozer?
