If you happen to be a cat owner, you know the attraction cats have for empty cardboard boxes. They’re like magnets as soon as the cat spies them, they’re in! Just like children at Christmas when they open their gift, throw it to the side and play with the box and wrapping paper. Sometimes the simplest things bring the most joy.
Growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, we had an appliance store not far from our house. There would be empty refrigerator boxes in the back outside the store and people were welcome to pick them up. My dad would frequently bring home a refrigerator box for my brother, little sister and me. They were the best!
I can remember way back when, pretending I was a dog, the box was my house. I was and am a rockhound so I had my rock collection outside my “door”, making it my own, a special place. It was such a cozy feeling inside that empty box. It wasn’t empty to me; it was filled with love and joy and imagination. My sister turned a refrigerator box into a spaceship once, complete with an instrument dashboard. Funny thing, she became an air traffic controller for the Air Force in later years. We’d take those boxes and slide down snowy neighborhood hills and boy would they go! And if you crashed, they’d cushion you a bit if you didn’t slide out first!…