The Caterpillar Dance
Drake’s Aunt Ruthie got him a battery-operated Caterpillar dump truck for one of his birthdays. The batteries operated the dumper, and made loud, raucous sounds, so they “disappeared” before the day was over. Drake complained bitterly about this.
Recently, I agreed to replace the batteries, since Drake had been behaving well and asked nicely. I regretted giving in as soon as the toy’s “voice” shouted, “Caterpillar Power!”, “Move it out” and “Back it up!”, but 4yo Drake and 2yo Guppy were delighted with the “new” toy. It made sounds, the dump mechanism worked, and it went backwards and forwards at the touch of a button. Best of all, though, is a music button that plays a guitar-metal-ish tune while the truck vibrates. Drake yells out, “Dance, Guppy! Dance!”, then they caper around the living room, rocking out.
It amuses me to imagine a real-world counterpart. In the middle of a hot, sweaty day on the construction site, the foreman presses a music button on the dump truck, and orders everyone to dance. The workers toss their hats in the air and get down, much like at the end of the John Waters Simpsons episode.
I’m betting this is not what the makers of the Caterpillar vehicle line thought their toy would inspire.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Drake & Guppy’s cousin was given a Sesame St car console toy and the radio has Oscar. It plays (loudly) “all garbage, all the time! followed by steel guitar for country or heavy metal. Maybe Drake & Guppy could rock out to it next visit.