Here’s to you, Lego Exxon man

As an only child, I spent hours playing with Lego, and was especially excited when they came out with the mini-figures. This little man was one of my original ones, part of a Lego city set most likely. I still remember those towns I would build, full of little smiling people going about their daily Lego lives, in some sort of a semi-European world I would build for them.

Now that I’m older, the little Lego men have migrated their way into my sons’ Lego bins, commingled with dozens of much more advanced mini-figures, replete with grimacing faces, magic hats, and long flowing hair. But one by one, my original men (and, alas, they are all men) are finding their way back onto my desk, reminding me of a simpler time when all my cares were focused on whether or not I could find that one matching piece to complete the little gas station, spaceship, or whatever it was I was building at the time.

Here’s to you, little Exxon man, here’s to you.