Is Imagination a thing of the past?

Some cardboard pieces Ron brought home from work.

The kids playing with the blocks TOGETHER.

A noodle box Cohen was using as a garage for his cars.

Cohen emerging out of a cocoon as a butterfly.

In my teenage years I remember having a discussion about imagination and how times have changed. I still think and reflect on that conversation. When I was young I was outside climbing trees, catching frogs, making forts and making mud pies. (Yes I was a tomboy) I am not going to get into why our children are not going outside like we used to. (maybe another post) I am going to talk about WHAT we played with. I don't recall using plastic guns that have a million sounds built into them. I don't recall legos that had the design planned for you on the box and the exact amount of pieces. I don't recall plastic kitchens with miniature food. What I do recall is running around the house with sticks for guns and making the sounds, building with legos WHATEVER I wanted to make and grabbing blankets to make picnics with real food. Sure I had skip-its and those toys that you stood on and bounced, slinkies and skipping ropes. I am not completely against plastic toys at all. I don't sit at birthday parties brooding and picturing landfills overflowed with this long forgotten garbage. I do however picture the children's imagination seeping out of them. When we have toys that make every sound, light up in every different color and jump when you say jump, it takes that away from the child. In our house we have two toy boxes. One for toys and one for cars/trucks, tracks (basically Cohen's toy box) My children much rather a large cardboard box or some paper and new crayons. My child's imagination is much more important to me than a surprised look on a holiday. What would we do with a world full of people using their imaginations?