Lynda's Idea of a Good Toy Didn't Come From the Toy Store

Ask any parent of a child with autism how easy it is to find a toy that their child will love to play with and almost always you'll get the same response...."Oh, my goodness we spend months trying to find a birthday gift she'll like or Christmas is so difficult because few toys hold his attention."  Parents want to be able to see their child's face light up with excitement when they rip off the wrapping paper of a gift.  Instead, most of the time the gift that was so carefully sought after and chosen is opened and the contents tossed to the side.  The child plays with the bubble wrap protecting the toy during shipping. The child may not even be interested in opening the gift that parents are holding their breath will be THE toy that is an instant hit.

When Lynda was young in the seventies and eighties there were no electronic toys that you pushed and they talked or did all of the amazing things they can do today.  Technology has certainly helped parents of children with autism find toys that will engage and entertain if for only minutes at a time.  Lynda's love was lining up things that were alike.  She loved plastic pots and pans to hold by the handles and turn up and down up close to her face.  She enjoyed having things in a milk crate and taking them out on a table or the floor and then putting them all back in the box and starting over.  She learned to enjoy some conventional toys like the see and say games that you pulled a cord and it made the sound of an animal. Other versions sang or made other sounds as you turned the big pointer and pulled the string.  Mostly she liked to create her own toys.

One Christmas after we moved back to Oxford (I think it was 1977) we decided that we were going to give Lynda a very unconventional toy.  I'm pretty sure this was the first time Santa had ever shopped at Avent Dairy in Oxford, Mississippi.  We went to the dairy and explained to them about Lynda and how she loved to play with empty milk jugs....the gallon size.  We asked them if we could buy 50 or 75 new ones without the tops (which could have been a choking hazard).  They were gracious and intrigued with the fact that our child would love to get milk jugs for Christmas.  It's been almost 40 years so I don't remember for sure but I don't think they even charged us when they knew why we wanted them.  Now 50 or 75 gallon size milk jugs take up quite a bit of space and we had to transport everything to Florence, Alabama and Booneville, Mississippi to have Christmas with the grandparents. 
We drove to Florence to spend a day or two before we  went to Booneville for Christmas Eve dinner and opening gifts on Christmas morning.  Then we'd go back to Florence the next morning to have brunch with family friends.  We drove back to Booneville for Christmas dinner....well, you get the picture so you understand how surprised we were to get to Booneville Christmas Eve to remember we'd left the milk jugs in Florence.  Larry drove back to Florence Christmas Eve and arrived back in time to put (some) of them out under the tree for Santa. The next morning Lynda  was as excited about them as we'd hoped she'd be.  When we got back to her room at home, we put all of them in her room.  It was kind of like one of the ball baths.  She lined them up.  She sat on some of them.  She thoroughly enjoyed them until they were smushed and almost flat.  I don't think I've seen a single picture of them and I know we took pictures of the unusual Christmas gift Santa brought Lynda from Avent Dairy.  We have boxes of pictures yet to go through.  Hopefully I'll find some pictures of the plastic extravaganza but whether they surface of not I will never forget the sweet expression on Lynda's face when she saw what Santa had brought her.  Children with autism think outside the box.  They teach their parents to do the same.