The Little Red Wagon

What are the really classic children's toys? I don't mean like Hot Wheels or Barbie, and I certainly don't mean a singing Justin Bieber doll, but the kind of really old school toys that your kids play with, you played with, your parents played with, your grandparents played with...and so on, going back to perhaps as long ago as the Civil War or even the Revolutionary War -- or before even that. Well, balls are probably as ancient as toys get, and then are pop-guns, which probably began about the same time as actual guns. Then there are the kind of dolls, like baby dolls or Woody from "Toy Story," that are as old as the hills. Play houses of various types, of course...and the fun red wagons that your kids like to put all their other toys in and stroll with around the yard.

Our  angels  enjoying a ride to a red wagon made  by Chris

There's just something so classic about kids' wagons and they are actually good for something. Somewhere I've heard the phrase that that the difference between an adult and a child is knowing the distinction between a tool and a toy. I don't know whether or not I agree with that, but I do know that one of the things I love so much about those fun red wagons is that they are both tools and toys.

Of course, part of the attraction is the iconic nature of the things and their kind of beautiful simplicity. The oddly harmless sounding threat, "I'll fix your little red wagon!" The Radio Flyer brand name -- apparently the founder of the Radio Flyer company was fascinated by airplane flight and radio, both kind of new inventions at the time. And then there's the fact that even adults might use them. How can you not love anything as useful as fun red wagons?