Mouse Trap

Sunday Sam and I went to the Strong Museum of Play. This time he was eager to go to the museum's collections upstairs, to show them to Max (the literal hand puppet--see earlier posts). This collection is row upon row of glass cases, and we ended up lingering in the row which had Twister, Atari game machines, Rock-em Sock-em Robots, and many other games... including Mouse Trap.

Now, Sam loves anything that involves balls rolling down chutes or tubes or what have you. We have a "marble racer" which he has spent a huge amount of time with (though mostly we build and he plays). So he was immediately fascinated by Mouse Trap. The curators have the game set up just as is shown in this photo. We spent a good 15-20 minutes just sitting in front of this glass case, until the museum closed, Sammy asking me how it all worked and getting me to describe where the ball goes and what happens next. He was fascinated. He also wanted to know whether we could play it and why it was locked behind glass!

His fascination didn't diminish after we left. Until we saw mommy, whom he just had to tell all about this, he kept asking me for the name of that game, so he would get it right.

That evening as I was reading to him preparatory to putting him in his bed, he asked me if the Play Museum was still open, and then asked--I think he asked--if the people who work there play Mouse Trap at night! Now, I think he's a little young to appreciate the game, so I am not going to scour eBay for a 30-yr-old copy. But I love the idea that he is drifting off to sleep picturing those museum workers huddled around Mouse Trap watching that ball roll down the stairs, knock the bowling ball through the tub and onto the see-saw, etc...