Classic toys fill my work station. It’s a way of keeping playful, although I don’t neglect my work duties. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

It’s funny how you see things as a kid. As an adult, you sometimes see them a lot differently, but sometimes you don’t.I’m not going to get into a deep psychological analysis of how a person — hopefully — matures over time and handles difficult life situations better than when they were a teen. Besides, I’m not exactly the best-evolved person in such a scenario.

I’m talking about things such as lighting fixtures and Christmas trees. You know, the important stuff.

I was at a local big box store the other evening where my husband and I were on a search for a toilet flush valve. As is often the case when we go to such stores, we can’t help but look for other items.

This time, we went to the aisle with lightbulbs. We met with success on finding the valve as well as bulbs for our ceiling fan.

The bulb aisle, though, was near the part of the ceiling with numerous lighting fixtures of many kinds: globular bulbs, industrial-looking bulbs, crystal chandelier-resembling fixtures and many others.

Each on its own would have filled me with wonder, but all of them together, hanging from the ceiling, was a sight to behold. It was like being in an LED fairyland.

I could have set up a sleeping bag, lied down on the floor and stared upward, mesmerized in the electrical fantasy above my head. However, I might have gotten a few strange looks.

So, I had to settle for getting excited over a toilet flush valve.

As a kid, I would have been just as mesmerized. We didn’t have a crystal chandelier, which was something I associated with wealth. Not being that concerned about finances then, I appreciated its aesthetic beauty a lot more.

Another setting that holds a special place in my heart is a lot where Christmas trees are sold. They are lined up like a boreal forest, which is much harder to walk through, by the way. At night, white lights are strung overhead on tree lots to give the buyers a chance to pick their green arboreal decorations and check out what trees have crooked trunks and other factors.

These lights have a marketing purpose, but they lend a touch of holiday atmosphere too. It’s like being Charlie Brown and Linus, looking for a sad tree that needs a home. You also can play hide-and-seek among the trees.

Although there is no room in our house for a Christmas tree, I still am tempted to visit a tree lot, just to soak in the atmosphere — and maybe lie on a sleeping bag, again getting lost in overhead lights.

When I was a youngster, I often had to tag along on shopping trips, which I generally believed were a big waste of time.

There was a glimmer of hope, though, when we went to a five-and-dime store and I could peruse the toy aisle where treasures such as plastic flutes — with slides or just simple fingerholes — were found.

Toy departments in big-city stores were even more adventurous with toys I didn’t see in my local establishments, although I came back from one Chicago trip with only a small blue wind-up robot. As I recall, I thought it was valuable enough to take it to kindergarten show-and-tell.

To this day, I can’t comprehend how anyone would enjoy shopping for clothes instead of board games and stuffed animals. A shirt just hangs on a rack. Back in the day, you could play with the board game Trouble and mess with the “Pop-O-Matic” in the center. This engineering marvel would make a popping sound and flip dice.

How can a pair of shoes compete with that?

A trademark of my past and current work stations is an array of small toys such as Gumby and Pokey, a Slinky, a mini ViewMaster, containers of Play-Doh and a Fun Factory, and other fun items.

Asked to explain this phenomenon by a former co-worker, I said the toys provide a tether to a happier, gentler time. You probably guessed that reading about the classic toys I keep on hand at work.

I suppose the point I’m trying to convey here is that some things in life can be appreciated, no matter what the age. And I’m not talking about a sunset or a blooming rose or other things that stereotypically are thought of as the best things to be savored.

Although I have been known to sniff roses as I walk by them, there’s a lot to enjoy about the less glamorous things, attributes of which I appreciated as a kid.

In that way, I haven’t changed.