INSIDE: COMMUNITY EVENTS B2 CHARLYNN TOEWS Adventures in Toyland HIS TIME OF year I like to remind my mother that she never pol me an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas even though I really wanted one. She had said at the time (about 30 years ago) that she wasn’t going to spend that kind of money on a “‘plorified light bulb.’’ Oh, I was upset, I like to remind her. She laughs, or some- times apologizes very gravely, and then we usually talk about the toy sewing machine | received when I was about eleven years old. It was in a big beautiful box with colourful pictures of a happy little girl merrily sewing wonderful things, Inside the box, there were plenty of instructions and diagrams and thread and patterns and even some bits of fabric. The toy sewing machine itself was red. It was sturdy and bright and looked almost like a real one, except cuter. I set it up on a litile table in my room and was so proud and pleased. After working with it for a few hours on Christmas Day, then most of Boxing Day, I determined the toy had one flaw: it did not sew. My dad tried to fix it, my mother attempted to make it work, as I hovered between dissipating disappointment and dashed hopes. Finally they declared ita dud, and said nothing more could be done, particularly on a holiday. (Remember when Boxing Day was a holiday?) I was so disappointed, I couldn’t let it go. The frustration I felt was immense, to receive such a terrific toy with so much possibility, the hours of fun it promised, the admirable items I could have created, The unfaimess of it was exquisite. Although my little boy is not yet four, he has some experience in the field of toy disappoint- ment. Squirting toys that do not squirt, just drib- ble; squirting toys that do not even dribble be- cause they are manufactured in such a way so as to prevent them from being filled with water. There have been transformers who don’t want to change (even after undergoing psychoanalysis), building toys who refuse to make anything of themselves, crayons who don’t make a mark, and walking robots who never get anywhere. It would be enough to make you give up on the whole lot of them, to say good-bye forever to plastic. But then we embraced mutant toys. For those of you who haven’t watched Toy Story 117 times, mutant toys are the creations of the neighbour boy character Sid. He takes bits of one tay and combines them with other picces, like a crane supported by Barbic legs, a baby doll head with octopus arms made out of Mec- cano, a duck head with strong-man arms, and so forth. A broken or malfunctioning toy at our house is now cause for celebration, because it means new parts for our manufacturing purposes. We now have an attractive red and black robot with curly blonde hair and long-lashed blue eyes that open and close. Mr, Potato Head doesn’t mourn his missing pieces since we found that Build-A- Bug pegs fit him perfectly: he now sports anten- nac and up to eight green amms whenever he feels like it. And a home-made cardboard Rodan (one of Godzilla’s arch-enemies, if you don’t know) enjoys wearing Rosie O’Doll’s jacket and an Animaniac’s trousers, which fortunately already had a hole for its tail. Our greatest joy, however, was discovering that Multimac mini-robots and vehicles accept Lego pieces and vice-versa. Man, you should see the space ships we make! And when we add Duplo and Megablocks to the mix, we have a fleet that could colonize Mars: space stations with wiggly arms, ant-like surface buggies, robot-operated flying saucers, it is so great. And sometimes, just to make life even sweeter, a piece of broken model finds new purpose by having just the right connector to join our space invasion, and we are so glad it broke off. And I am so glad now about that malfunction- ing toy sewing machine. 1 had cried bitter tears when my parents left my room in defeat, unable to fix it. I felt like smashing the thing, throwing “it to the ground and stomping on it. But I took my fury instead to a letter of complaint ] com- posed. I can’t remember all I said, but I know I itemized the manufacturer’s faults with both vigor and composure. And [ remember the last sentence of the letter, which was: ‘‘And so in conclusion, gentlemen, back to the drawing board.” Flushed with success and righteous indigna- tion (the best kind to have), I ran downstairs and read it aloud to my parents. They laughed and laughed and applauded and hugged me and told me what a good writer ] was. What a lovely gift to receive at any time of year. What a great toy thal sewing machine was, after all: Like they say, a broken foy is what you make of it. TERRACE STANDARD The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 9, 1998 - BI That's Aaron Varga, 11, standing beside his award-winning gar- den. The Canadian Gardening magazine awarded him first prize for his age category. Varga is Dalton china. SECTION B ALEX HAMILTON 638-7283 noob sbeceeNeaee A receiving $800 + worth of Royal Boy wonder wins contest AARON VARGA is a Ca- nadian gardening champion. He’s also nationally ranked in cooks, bakes, sews, draws and knits. By the way, he’s only 11 years old. ; When Aaron’s family moved to Terrace from ‘Smithers in May, the front | garden was nothing more than a small bed of tulips overmun by. grass. _ By August and after multi- ple trips to the nursery, the Vargas’ garden was a blooming extravaganza of colour — thanks to Aaron. He had never gardened be- fore and his parents aren't green thumbs, but Aaron said he wanted to start his own ‘garden after admiring his grandmother’s in Ontario. After rototilling a larger garden bed and adding manure, peat moss and top- soil, Aaron lined the area with rocks found im his backyard. Then he picked out dahlias, irises and lilies (his favorites because of their colours) as well as poppies, columbine and delphiniums. karate and he | saw a contest in Canadian Gardening magazine she encouraged Aaron to enter. When he got a phone call from the magazine’s editor a month ago, Aaron couldn't believe he had placed first in the 41-17 year-old category. **T was shocked,'’ he said. “EF couldn't believe it.”’ First prize is eight com- plete place settings of Royal Dalton china worth $886. “T wish I coufd have won the second prize,’’ Aaron said, disappointed that the barbecne would go to the runner up. Aaron’s accomplishments don’t stop with gardening. For Christmas this year, he’s decided to make some-. thing special for his grand-, them free mother. “My dad likes when we make things, so I decided to knit my granny a scarf,’ he said. But not just any scarf -— one made of pure Ilama’s wool. While at the Northwestern Llama Ranch two weeks ago, he saw Mama’s wool for sale and told his mother he wanted to learn how to He already knows how to sew (he had made the fleece vest he was wearing), so knilling came naturally to him. His granny’s scarf should be done by Christmas. Aaron’s also fond of baking. His mom said he made a dandy apple pump- ‘kin pie for Thanksgiving — by himself. ‘T had quite the trouble rolling the dough though,’’ he said. ‘‘It really broke.’’ His parents Lynn and Keith attribute = Aaron’s diverse interests to his character and to home schooling. Lyun, a teacher, prepares lessons for her four children in the morning and gives time in the afternoon. “T like them to be able to have time to do the things they’re interested in,’’ Lynn said. ] think its importani for kids to have time to do art and to relax.’’ To Aaron his accomplish- ments aren’t anything to brag about. His gardening award isn’1 a big deal to him and neither To fill in the spaces be- knil. tween the perennials he chose calendula, zinnias, cosmos and annual poppies. When his mother, Lynn, | Not knowing how to knit herself, his mother, Lynn, got out a book and Aaron taught himself. : are the scarf nor his tasty pies. “Anyone can do il,” he said, shyly. ‘What's the big deal?” Former resident gets 99 per cent on LSAT Local headed to law school of her choice FORMER TERRACE resident Jessica Bowering isn’t worried about getting into law school. Bowering, 25, scored 99 per cent on her Law School Admission Test (LSAT). She was so shocked when she phoned in for her test score that she phoned back again later in the day to make sure there was no mistake. “] kept asking myself: Did IJ mishear that? Was | right about the score?”’ she said in a telephone interview from Vancouver last weck. LSATs are aptitude tests administered across North America, Practically all baw schools use them as part of their admissions standards, Bowerlug sald most law schools value LSAT scores as much as an applicant’s GPA. She explained that LSAT scores are a ranking against everyone clse who wrote the test in the past three years. So only one per cent of people who took the test in the. past three years scored higher than she did, ~ “Tt means I’m incredibly ley and have some opportunitics now that [ wouldn’t have imagined myself having,” she said. “I can probably go to any law school in North America barring some collapse in my grades,”! Bowering said she studied hard for the test. She explained that there is nothing factual on the LSAT — it is supposed to be pure aptitude but practice helps. Bowering is taking the next couple of - | months to decide which law school she wants to attend, She said she’s considering Harvard, Uni- versily of Toronto, and Dalhousie. ‘7 think law school is an important part of developing the long term qualifications that [ want, but other things are too, so I! may change my mind about the timing,’ she said. ‘I’m not ever planning to go into politics as a candidate, but public policy issucs are. my area and probably always will be,”” Currently Bowering is completing a de- gree in Philosophy at Simon Fraser Univer- sity. She is also working as 9 constituency as- sistant for Graham Bowberick, MLA for New Westmittister. Aaron practices karate three times a week. The karate kid also added: ‘Anybody that teases ine about it 1’m going to chop them dead!” Jessica Bowering got 99 per cent on her law school admission test, That means she can go to practically any law schoo! of her choice.