Growing up Adirondack by Mitch Lee

Toy soldier collection keeps a boy busy on wintry afternoons

 Ever since I was a child I have had a fondness for collecting toy soldiers and an interest in the Revolutionary War.

MY own Staedfast Soldier and Balarina

A week ago, a large group of friends, who are as interested in living history as I am, came to my home to sew pieces of their uniforms for the 2013 Revolutionary War reenactment season.

After seeing the great variety of soldiers I had on display throughout my home—which now numbers in the thousands—they asked how I got interested in collecting them in the first place.

I suppose it all began when I read the fairy tale, The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Anderson.

It’s the story of a boy who receives a set of twenty-five toy soldiers for his birthday. and displays them on a table top.

One soldier stands on a single leg, having been the last one cast from an old tin spoon.

Nearby, he spies a paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. She is also standing on one leg and the soldier falls in love with her.

That night, a goblin among the toys angrily warns the soldier to take his eyes off the ballerina. But the soldier ignores him.

The next day the soldier falls from a windowsill—presumably the work of the goblin—and lands in the street.

The soldier is found by two boys who place him in a paper boat and send him sailing in the gutter.

The boat and its passenger washes into a storm drain where a rat demands the soldier pay a toll. 

As it sails along, the boat is washed into a canal and the tin soldier is swallowed by a fish. When the fish is caught and cut open, the tin soldier finds himself back on the table top and once again facing the ballerina.

Inexplicably, the boy throws the tin soldier into the fire. Then a wind blows the ballerina into the fire with him.

She is consumed at once, but her spangle remains. And the tin soldier melts into the shape of a heart.

I loved this story so much that I wanted to have soldiers of my own. I imagined they would come to life each night on my bedroom shelf and experience a variety of adventures.

I started a collection and spent many long winter afternoons arranging them for battle in all parts of our house.

My parents added to the collection by buying me several sets of soldiers representing various eras of war.

Over the years I created many strange conflicts between Knights and Native Americans fighting for position within the small valleys and hill tops formed by pots and pans and plates slipped under an old wool blanket.

I hand-painted many of the figures to give them a more realistic feel.

I remember spending long hours painting faces, boots and belts on a number of the soldiers back in January of 1978.

I read as many books as I could get my hands on or sifted through the Encyclopedia Britannica to gather as much information as I could on the various battles they had fought.

Later that same month I started writing a small comic-type story about my soldiers in a quest to give them even more life.

I thoughtfully named and assigned a distinct personality to each of them.

They were involved in many crazy adventures that I played out on those cold winter days.

Then I would try to capture the images on the pages of my sketch book.

It was an activity that kept me busy many afternoons. And I am quite sure that is why my parents were happy to add to the collection from time to time.

Mitch Lee is an Adirondack illustrator & storyteller, living in his boyhood town of Inlet. ltmitch3rdny@aol.com

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