There's just something about Trains

At the Birthday Extravaganza on the weekend, the kids were given add-ons to their Thomas Train set. This included a new engine with batteries. So of course the whole set had to be dragged out to the lounge room and set up smack in the middle for everyone to trip over, because, really, a party isn't a party without some casualty or another. Then I noticed something. A train set automatically draws you in: the continuous locomotion of a train going around the track, and the scratchy noise it makes. Or mentally willing it to go over a bridge and stay its course, most people are hypnotized in their presence. We had boyfriends, playgroup-friends, grandfathers and grandmothers, fathers, mothers, all at some point re-building knocked about tracks or re-connecting rogue cabooses. All for the higher purpose of keeping little Thomas chug-chugging along. It struck me then that no matter how much we grow; we all remain child-like inside. At least, we should. It's unifying. It's innocent. It's wonderful. What toys do you find draw people together to play and enjoy their inner-selves? Perhaps it's a kite? Or a jigsaw puzzle? And just what is it about these toys - or others - that give them such universal appeal?