The Central Pennsylvania songwriting team of Bill Dan (lyrics) and Jack Servello (music) just before Christmas 2013 captured the warm and snuggly feelings of childhood Christmas past shared by the baby boomer generation in a beautiful song, “Tonka Trucks & Tinker Toys.”
The mood and message of the song is best illustrated in two lines – “a different time and a different place” and “distant childhood memories” – and in the chorus:
“Tonka Trucks and Tinker Toys,
Noisy trains for bright-eyed boys,
Candy canes and mistletoe,
Sledding on the crusted snow.
Seemed life was simpler then.
Wish we could have those days again.
Tonka Trucks and Tinker Toys.”
Michelle M. Peters completed the imagery with a slideshow of black-and-white vintage photos of kids and families enjoying Christmas in the 1950s and 1960s.
The team has shared the song and video on their dreamsedge YouTube channel, along with many others they’ve produced over the years.
Here’s the song and video:
