A Couple Little Sneezes

The man who invented the Matchbox cars, Jack Odell, has died. I was listening to a report on NPR yesterday, where it was explained that Mr. Odell's daughter used to get in trouble for taking bugs and spiders to school in a matchbox so he made a little road roller that she could take instead. I thought that was cute.

My brother, George Clooney, like every other red-blooded American baby boom boy, collected Matchbox cars. He had scads and scads of them. We could spend hours in his room, organizing them and cataloging them and occasionally rolling them across the room to each other. We'd built Lego towns, complete with garages for the little cars.

Matchbox cars were sweet. Even I could appreciate their cunning design, the exact detail, the way some models had a steering wheel that actually turned the wheels. They were adorable.

George is/was also something of an engineer. He would build elaborate roadways among the roots of the apple trees in the back garden. He'd dig up sod, scrape down the dirt, pour water on it and smooth the roads. He built hills and tunnels and clever little bridges. And the two of us could spend hours driving and racing the little cars and trucks along the tiny highways and byways. Good times.

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Here's a pic that Jon took of The Child on Michigan Ave. earlier this month. Isn't she the cutest thing?