Carol Lehtola recalled playing with a Tonka dump truck as a child.
Lehtola, a former UF associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering and avid vintage toy collector, said it was around 1960 when she played outside, digging and hauling sand with the toy truck.
She built bridges and pushed a lever on her toy to pour out water into ridges she created.
Today, the truck is dirty and dented, she said. But she won’t clean it.
"To me, that’s part of its history," Lehtola said. "I would rather get a toy that shows love, and this dump truck has definitely been loved."
Lehtola will lead a gallery discussion from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Matheson Museum, located at 513 E University Ave.
The museum’s current exhibit, "Florida Girls & Boys & Their Toys," is on loan from the Museum of Florida History and will be on display until Dec. 23, said Rebecca Fitzsimmons, Matheson Museum’s curator and archivist.
The exhibit will feature three cases of toys, 30 old photographs of children playing with toys from the 19th and 20th centuries, a DVD playing vintage toy commercials and an opportunity for kids to play with both modern and traditional toys.
Lehtola said the aspect of toys she enjoys most is the creative process.
"When a kid is having fun, their imagination can run away," she said. "It’s like an open-thought process that you’re not putting blinders on."
She also said she loves the history each toy holds.
She referenced the Erector Set.
Erector Sets, once advertised as "the world’s greatest construction toy," is a box of parts that allows children to be creative and build hundreds of models for themselves.
Historically, the toy served as a prototype for bridges and an artificial heart, Lehtola said.
Erector Sets were invented by Alfred C. Gilbert in 1913. At the end of World War I, Congress wanted to end the use of metals toward the production of toys and use metals for ammunition, guns and airplanes, Lehtola said.
Gilbert fought Congress, won and became known as "the man who saved Christmas."
Lehtola said she wants to preserve history like this.
Her original Erector Set will be on display among the 10 to 15 other toys she donated to the exhibit.
Other items on display will include Lincoln Logs, a Magic 8 Ball, a View-Master and Tinker Toys.
Fitzsimmons said the best part of this exhibition is the relationship between the photographs and the objects on display.
It’s a wonderful thing to be able to look at the photographs, appreciate them, and then go and find the physical object, she said.
It’s an opportunity to learn and reflect on personal experiences you may have had with these toys.
"It just taps into something that I think is just a really incredible part of this exhibition," Fitzsimmons said.
Carol Lehtola, a former UF associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, will lead a gallery discussion on Saturday at Matheson Museum.
