Give Me a Forklift and Imagination
It’s the simple things in life that lead to the best stories.
Last week, I spent a Saturday afternoon at our local outdoor brewery, Ruhstaller. It’s a family-friendly spot in the middle of nowhere, complete with live music, food trucks, homegrown beer, fire pits, corn hole, and so many live chickens. I don’t even drink, and I love this spot.
Our family visits Ruhstaller often. In fact, my oldest daughter had her most recent birthday there! Was a brewery the most conventional spot for a kid’s birthday party? Not on paper, but the venue allowed us to bring in a jump house, cupcakes, a mini horse, and even a face painter. I don’t know Ruhstaller’s official slogan, but I’d imagine it’s something like, “Come and do whatever you want as long as you’re chill and respectful.” That’s my kind of place.
What I love about this place is the creativity it invokes in my daughters. I swear, we can be at home, and they’re rolling around on the floor, looking at 100 different toys they might play with for a minute. Once they see Ruhstaller’s giant mountain of dirt, they transform into pirates, princesses, and acrobats who just need to see how many times they can roll down the hill. My wife and I can sit at a fire pit, drink in hand, and just watch our girls have a blast with new and existing friends alike.
While Ruhstaller is known for its hops, our family is partial to its walnut trees. During the late summer months, thousands, if not millions, of walnuts hang from the tree branches, most of which are available for us to pick, smash, and eat on the spot. We have a blast walking through the walnut trees and counting how many walnuts we can find. This is why when my youngest said, “Dad, can we go look at the walnut trees?” I had to say yes.
My two daughters, niece, and I took a little stroll toward the walnut trees. While the rows of trees are still on the property, they’re not necessarily in the sight of the main communal areas. The afternoon quickly turned to evening, and it was getting dark. I figured I’d let the three of them play for a bit before returning to the family. That’s when I heard my daughter say, “Look! A forklift!”
In the middle of the farm sat an old rusty forklift. This thing was decades old, and I couldn’t tell you the last time it operated properly. The girls immediately hopped on and started playing, which was a joy to watch. I checked the time, figuring I’d give them about five minutes as it was getting dark. That’s when I heard them yell, “Dad! Get out of the water! A shark is coming!”
Was there an actual shark coming straight for me? Of course not. I was standing in the middle of a farm, but when three kids urgently tell you to move out of the water, lava, quicksand, etc., you move.
I hopped onto the forklift, which they had apparently retrofitted into a boat. The girls took turns at the steering wheel, at the back lookout, and as the person in charge of the anchor. As for me, I became the boat mechanic, fixing its hull, stern, and anything else I could google in real time.
Every two minutes, a new shark would attack our boat, and it was our job to fight it off and keep the four of us safe. Somehow, my youngest had an unlimited supply of spears and perfect aim.
“Can’t we just speed away from the sharks?” I asked. I don’t love the idea of harming sharks.
“No, Dad. These sharks are out to get us. We need to get them first.” I had more questions than answers, starting with what these girls did to anger the sharks.
The coast was clear. We were safe from the shark attacks, which was good because my wife and sister-in-law probably wondered where we were. But just as I spoke the words, “All right, girls…” trouble appeared.
“Ahhh! Dad! You’ve been bit!”
Yup. The shark bit me. Apparently, I was bleeding profusely as the shark took a giant chunk out of my leg. My niece took the wheel and drove us off to safety. My oldest daughter pulled up the anchor, allowing us to move quicker, and thank goodness my youngest was a trained doctor.
“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll use my doctor kit to fix you up.”
Before I knew it, my daughter had pulled out a pretend bandaid and put it over the missing chunk in my leg. “There you are. You’re all better now.” No surgery required. Modern medicine is amazing.
Eventually, I got a call from my wife; “Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Yup! We’re great! Just riding a forklift in the middle of the woods.” This time, I’m sure I left my wife with more questions than answers. At this point, the sun had pretty much gone down, and I had clearly lost track of time. “Okay, girls, it’s time to take the boat back to shore. We’ll come back and take another boat ride soon, and next time, hopefully, there will be fewer sharks!”
Every day, we’re surrounded by advertisements for the newest and shiniest toys. Listen, adults fall for it, too. A few weeks ago I saw a lot of you running to Target to get a pink Stanley Water Cup.
By no means am I a minimalist parent, working to make the aesthetic of my home match the vibe of a newly built model home. I want my home to feel cozy and comfortable and look like kids live there. But as much as we may feel the pressure to entertain our kids, or at the very least purchase items that will help them entertain themselves, an old beat-up forklift in the middle of some walnut trees reminded me that kids and their imaginations are the best toys you can ever find.
I had a blast sitting on a broken forklift for 45 minutes because my daughters and niece let their imaginations run wild, turning one scenario into the next, never knowing where this crazy ride would end up.
As adults, we can become jaded, often dimming our imaginations in favor of entertainment via social media, news, etc. Whenever I get lost in a rabbit hole, doom-scrolling through stories and events that keep me up at night, I think of the times my friends and I would ride bikes between neighborhoods, building forts and playing games in the same vein as my daughters are doing today.
Fatherhood has taught me to enjoy the little moments because, at the end of the day, is there anything that matters more than turning a forklift into a boat and speeding away from dozens of angry sharks with your kids and niece? I don’t think so.
Today, I’m going to challenge myself to lean further into my imagination for the sake of just having a good time, and I want to challenge you to do the same.