Thursday, 4/20

When I was a kid, I loved doing them. But now that I think about it, I don't think I've seen one for decades.

When I was a kid, I loved to do mazes. In fact, every couple of months I'd hop on my bike, ride down to the old B. Dalton Bookstore in the old Marquette Mall, and look for two things—the latest Star Trek book, and a new book of mazes to replace the ones I'd already finished. I don't know why I liked them so much; maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had a weird sense that would guide me through them without too many wrong twists and turns. But when I was young, I had a bunch of them, before eventually turning the small part of my brain that still enjoys doing puzzles to logic puzzles, something I still do to this day.

Then right before Easter Loraine was looking at the Facebook page of one of our favorite French grocery stores, where they has a posted a maze in the shape of an Easter egg. Knowing that I used to like doing them, she pointed it out to me, I printed it out, and then after staring at it for a few seconds found my way through the puzzle. Now, admittedly, it wasn't a hard maze, but it's nice to know that I still have whatever “sense” about them that I had as a kid.

And that got me to thinking (which, as we all know, can be a dangerous thing). Do they still make books filled with mazes like they used to when I was a kid? A quick, cursory search of those book catalogs I was talking about yesterday says “no”. Oh, they have a ton of puzzle books for both kids & adults. You can find hundreds of word search puzzles, crossword puzzles, Sudoku puzzles, and even (if you look hard enough) “adult” puzzles (about which I'm almost afraid to ask). But nowhere in any of the catalogs we have lying around, nor on the company's website, could I find any books of mazes.

Hmm.

Maybe mazes just aren't in fashion any more. Heck, it's quite possible that “books” aren't even in fashion any more, which makes my search for a book of mazes twice as quixotic as it might normally be. And it's not like I'd actually want to work my way through a book of mazes. After all, the Easter egg maze was the first time I had even thought about them in decades. But still, it seems like some dorky kid growing up some where like I did might enjoy doing them. I mean, I know I'm kind of unique, but there must be someone of a younger generation who'd be interested in them. I couldn't have been the last person who liked doing them, could I have been?

Because, if so, I'd have more in common with a dodo bird than I ever thought.

One of the things Loraine and I do when we head to Europe is spend a couple of hours between flights in downtown Chicago, where one of our stops is always the Barnes & Noble store on Rush Street. Maybe, when we're there this summer, I'll stroll upstairs and see if they have a section of puzzle books. If they do, I'm sure I'll find books of word search puzzles, crossword puzzles, Sudoku puzzles, and heck, maybe even “adult” puzzles. But I'm not holding my breath that I'll find a book of mazes.`

That's life, I guess.

(jim@wmqt.com), slowly realizing he's turning into a living dinosaur.