I got my first LEGO set, a hand-me-down from family friends, when I was about five years old. Ah, the 1960s when nobody worried about choking hazards. I kind of wish I hadn't destroyed the box they came in, as it had plastic trays for all of the different pieces. I built variations on the same house over and over, with the windows that had (non-operational) shutters and doors that were forever closed. I got other pieces as time went on, including the wheels and tires that operated by sticking them into modified 2x4 bricks with holes for the metal axles. I used them, but I didn't really like them.

Fast forward to the 1970s. I got a few sets with instructions; I seem to remember a fire station. Unlike all of my prior LEGO pieces, I kept these together so I could rebuild the same set over and over. And I did. I integrated them with the plastic roadways that were built for my Matchbox cars. Unfortunately, I couldn't leave any assemblies built for long, as there really wasn't much room for anything elaborate.

LEGO took a back seat for me during high school, college, and afterward. I was dimly aware of the development of Minifigs, but didn't have a lot of time to explore further. I fondly remembered my time with LEGO, but it inevitably got left behind. Fortunately, my mom didn't give away my LEGOs (unlike several other things!), so I know that the old boxes are down in the basement somewhere.

Visiting the LEGO store at Disneyland Resort in the early 2000s was an eye-opener, as I saw that the sets had become the major business. There seemed to be many more colors than I remembered, the number of shapes had multiplied exponentially. I lusted after various sets but settled for some keychains and other "gear." I simply didn't have the time to spend on complicated sets, as much as I wanted to build them.

Once my partner retired, he had no constraints. Over the past 15 years I've made a bunch of the freebie sets while he built the big Star Wars and Architecture sets. I managed to persuade him to let me do Fallingwater, which I set aside as my reward for successfully retiring. COVID threw a bit of a monkey wrench into those plans, so I finally cheated and built the set earlier this year. Now my retirement cheat is the World Map set. I should be able to start on that pretty soon.