Give them roots and wings

Yesterday I fell in love.  Today I said goodbye.

This is our RSS SWECS, which we created out of cardboard, as part of Cardboard Dreams, hosted by Sarah of the Playful Parents.

It all started when I found the tall fridge cardboard box at the lift landing the same day I said “yes” to Sarah.  Of course I grabbed it and brought it home.

Elias and Samuel had fun playing with the super-big box.

The box was so big and there were so many possibilities that at first we could not decide on what to make.  Then I said that we should do something “boy”, and almost immediately Elias said – let’s make a submarine.

The Sub at the early stage.  Elias is preparing the mast.

We have cut a hole at the top.  The Sub is taking shape!

We needed to make the front and the back of the submarine, and none of the pieces we had were suitable, so we went hunting for cardboard boxes again.

We found many more boxes, most of which we did not use. But we did find one which worked perfectly as the front (when I took this photo, it had not yet been found). We were to use the fan box as a “mat” at the entrance to the Sub.

We had some challenges in getting the Sub operational – we had to find a way to help it stand on its own, and to keep the front flaps down.  In the end we used string.  The Sub was practically sewed into being.

We have “sewed” the submarine together!

Elias had an inspiration and decided to name it RSS SWECS.  RSS stands for Royal Singapore Ship/Submarine, and SWECS is our family identity.

We got some spray paint for the Sub’s body, and its name.

Elias and Samuel had lots of fun doing the spraying.

Transporting it proved to be a challenge too, but the ever-amazing husband of mine found a way.

This was how we had to transport it.  We tied the main body to the roof of the car. We had to bring two boxes containing rims of paper and books, to act as weights. We had to bring a trolley because the event venue was a 5-minutes walk from the carpark. We had to bring a host of stationary, to set the Sub up at the event venue.

I took more than half an hour to set RSS SWECS up at the event venue, with the help of new friends (husbands of the blogger mums).

I also printed out pictures of dials and sonar screens, and a view through the periscope. I pasted the pictures up at the event venue itself.

Unfortunately, it started raining nearly immediately after I got the Sub up. We had to leave the Sub out there in the rain, since it was too difficult for me to move it.

Some children managed to play in it, before they had to run for shelter.

After the rain, some children went to play inside again.  The good old Sub was still strong, despite having been out in the rain for 30 minutes.

In the end, we did not make a “back” for the Sub, because we wanted the children to be able to crawl in and out of it easily

But soon it was time to go.

I had decided to dismantle the Sub, and discard it, because I thought it was too dirty, having been out in the rain and some children had gone inside with their shoes on.  It was also very difficult for me to bring it all the way back to the car, and I did not want to trouble anyone any further (I have had to enlist the help of two other adults to bring the things from the carpark to the event venue).

So a friend helped to dismantle and fold/cut the pieces up, and we said goodbye to it.

This was among the last photos we took of the Sub.

I am rather strange, in the sense that I tend to personify inanimate objects.  Somehow I felt that I had betrayed our RSS SWECS.

I imagined, that the cardboard box had been happy, having served its duty as a fridge box, and was ready to retire.  But suddenly, it was found and given new life by this nice human being.  It was thrilled to see itself transformed into something completely different from what it was originally – something that no other cardboard boxes ever had a chance to be – a submarine!  It had an exciting new life – meeting parents and children, and bringing joy to them.

But it was over all too soon, and it was this same nice human being who ended it, so soon.

I am sorry, RSS SWECS. Eventually, your new life would have to end, but perhaps it did not need to be today.  Please forgive me, and thank you for being part of our lives.

I did sincerely love you.  You will always be part of us and we will always remember you.