Marl of Kark

As a boy growing up in the late '70s and early '80s, LEGO Town and Space were a HUGE part of my childhood. LEGO is the reason I have a distinct memory of the Iran Hostage Crisis, as Saturday morning cartoons were interrupted for news broadcasts as I built by my first LEGO set (House with Garden - 376). I'm not sure why my parents preferred Town over Space, when I would have prefered the reverse, but LEGO was LEGO. In the end, all of these sets were lost after I left home for college, when my younger brother sold off our sizable, combined collection for chump change. ;( Only his Black Seas Barracuda (6285) and Cannon Cove (6266) Pirate sets survived the purge.

My better-half and I rediscovered LEGO during the Christmas season of 2011. We decided that our oldest was ready to move on from Duplos to “real” LEGO. The reintroduction of LEGOs made Christmas just as exciting for mom and dad as it was for our boys. We also discovered that our local mall had a LEGO store that provided free monthly LEGO builds, which soon led to the Emerald Night (10194) becoming our first adult, toe in the water, LEGO purchase. And so, our LEGO dark ages came to an abrupt end. We have not looked back.