Toys of my time (Favourite Childhood Toys)

Member Name: pay2say

Product:	Favourite Childhood Toys
Date:	24/02/09 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Freedom and safety to play

Disadvantages: none

I was born in l945 just at the very end of the war. Toys in those days were few and far between but my sister and I (she was 2 years older than I) always had a few toys to play with. When we tired of these we would make things like 'dolly peg dolls', using odd bits of material scraps ,donated by our mother as she was a dressmaker, to dress them up. We drew sad or smiley faces on them, according to the character they were to play in our little games. We would find some limestone and play hopscotch (as kiddies do to this day), or heavenly bliss, someones dad would allow us all to play 'house' in their half empty garden shed.

When I was about 7 we got a television delivered to our house and we stared in amazement at Muffin the Mule and Andy Pandy. I remember fondly the Christmas I opened a long box shaped parcel wrapped in green paper. Inside lay a beautiful metal handpainted Muffin the Mule puppet. Oh I was over the moon! The sheer ectasy of each clickety clack noise as I walked him across the living room, his little metal hooves clipping the tiled floor. OOh I thought I was the bees knees that year! I was the envy of the other children in our little village.

Funny but we never felt deprived, we had very little in the way of entertainment as kiddies toys, as such, were for the more privileged classes, but my dear parents always saw to it that there was something special in our sacks! A couple of years later there was a very large bride doll staring at me as she stood in a silver box at the foot of my bed when I woke. To my young eyes she was the most beautiful doll in the world. I still have her now, in my loft, shes been loved bald! One eye doesnt shut, and her arms and legs have dropped off. Im 63 but I still love that doll like she was brand new.

My grandchildren this year had the most fabulous gifts, as everyones do. They are of a different era and, bless them, they had a wonderful Christmas but as for me, I look back on those, maybe less colourful and technological gifts with a deeply grateful heart.

One day I returned from Primary School (my first year I think) to a beautiful handmade horse on wheels standing in the back garden. My dear dad had lovingly made it in his dinner hours at work, handpainted, saddled the lot. I consider myself richer for these memories. I was very blessed.
Yesterdays toys take a lot of beating!!!!

Toys these days are a lot safer, mainly made of plastics. Brightly coloured creations to tempt the heart of any little person, with suitable ages on boxes. Ours were probably not so safe, but we seemed to come to no harm. A cardboard box would become a dolls house, or a car. A dolly tub full of water waited for us on a hot summers day at school. In we'd go, both of us, with only our knickers on!

My only regret is that I cannot take my grandchildrens , chubby little hands and walk back in time to show them how we played then. They would love how we played dens and even the girls had home made bows and arrows that never fired more than 2 foot. Our imaginations were given full reign and we wandered, quite safely, to the outskirts of our village. No fear then of being abducted. How sad the children of this day and age have not got that same sense of freedom and safety. I do hope I havent bored you and that I have given you a glimpse of my early years and the toys we played with.

Summary: New toys for old? Naaaah!