I don’t remember life before this toybox.

My dad made this toybox for me for Christmas in 1974, when I was still a year old. As far as toyboxes go it was quite large, especially considering the size of my room at the time. Our house at the time was 983 square feet. According to my mom, my bedroom was 8×10 (my sister’s was 8×9 and the master bedroom was 9×11). I distinctly remember being able to do a complete lap around my room — starting on the bed, crossing over to the dresser, climbing over to the toybox and leaping back onto the bed — without ever touching the floor.

The toybox was painted blue before it was moved into my bedroom. The top had two solid shelves, three if you included the top. I don’t remember ever climbing all the way up to the top. but I’m sure I must have tried. The bottom contained seemingly endless storage space. There were no tubs or any other types of organization down there, just one giant container for storing toys with two separate lids. For what it’s worth I don’t remember any of the toys in this photograph.

On occasion, when I was feeling lonely or sad or bored, I would climb inside those storage bins and sit and be alone. Sometimes I would hide from people in there and sometimes I wouldn’t be hiding from anybody. If I twisted and wiggled around long enough all my toys would fill in around me and I could sit there, inside a dark wooden box, surrounded by all my stuff, all alone.

I was four-years-old when we moved to the home I grew up in and (of course) the toybox came with me. This picture was taken in 1982, specifically to show off my Star Wars collection. The toybox did not always look this neat and organized. Most of the time, Star Wars toys filled the shelves while the cubbies below stored everything else, sometimes to the point where the lids wouldn’t even shut. Mostly the bins held toys, although occasionally they held books and dirty underwear and whatever else I tossed in there.

Eventually boys outgrow their toyboxes. This one was replaced by a set of floor-to-ceiling shelves. The toybox was moved out to the garage where my dad used it for storing tools for a while. I don’t remember what happened to it after that.

I wish I still had it.

There are days I would like to climb inside it again, wiggle around until my toys were all around me, and close the lid for just a little while.