Theo had his first playdate at another child's home over the weekend. I heard all about it from Jordan yesterday. "They had a wonderful time," she said. "William's dads had converted their entire great room into a playroom. The floor was covered in play mats. There were all kinds of toys. Theo went right to where all the vehicles were neatly parked--trucks, cars, a cement mixer, a school bus--and ran them everywhere. There was every kind of toy imaginable in there!"
Our boys had a lot of toys, and a great many of them lived in half of our living room, which we simply gave over to them when they were little. They had a Little Tykes basketball hoop in there, as well as a Fisher Price game table that was a glide hockey and pool table in one. I mean, after all, it was where we lived, for goodness' sake.
When I was a kid, it wasn't like that at all. For one thing, there were four of us. And until I was in high school, my mom didn't have a job outside of the home. I never felt shortchanged or anything, but our Christmases were more modest. I always got the kinds of toys I liked, and my favourites were not spectacular. Here's a list of
Favourite Toys Of My Childhood
1. Colouring Books and Crayons
2. Etch A Sketch
3. Spirograph
4. Play Doh
5. Roller Skates
This list is short because I usually wanted (and got) clothes and books for Christmas and my birthday, along with little niceties like bubble bath and other doodads. I would occasionally ask for a doll, but looking back, they weren't my favourites. I did play with dolls often, usually on a big blanket spread out under the tree in the front yard with my sister or friends. But the things on this list hold the fondest memories for me.
Every year for Christmas, I would ask for and receive a box of Crayola 64 crayons. I loved to colour, and the year I got The Great Big Nature Book To Colour, I was ecstatic. It was at least three inches thick, and within its pages were the best pictures ever--little animals in the woods, kids picking flowers, birds in nests, kids rowing boats in lakes with fish peeping out from the surface. I loved that book. Now, it's all but impossible to find a colouring book that's not a tie-in with a cartoon or character, or branded in some way.
When I started being a Play Doh Artiste, there were only four colours, pink, yellow, blue, and white. I considered it a Venial Sin to mix Play Doh, ever. Still, I made wonderful things out of Play Doh and was thrilled to have a sister five years younger so that I could play with it long after it was appropriate.
I rollerskated like it was my job when I was a kid. And, hey, I'm not talking about those sissy skates that are boots with wheels attached that you just put on like bowling shoes. Oh no! I'm talking Change Out Of Your Keds And Put On Your Saddle Shoes In The Summertime And Clamp Those Bitches On By Using A Skate Key Like A Badass skates. These:
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| from Pinterest |
Don't mess with me. I also played jump rope in the street using the telephone pole to hold the rope when we couldn't get another person to twirl. When Susan (my little sister) used to purposely jerk the rope to make me miss, our battles were epic and sometimes bloody. What can I say? Life in the 'hood.
What were some of your favourite childhood toys? Did you ever use a skate key? Anyone else love to get crayons?
As a colorblind person, the Crayola 64 crayons were my nemesis. And the 152 pack in particular could fuck off. I couldn't in a thousand years tell the difference between orange-yellow, yellow-orange, crayellow, macaroni and cheese, neon carrot, middle yellow red, and so on.
ReplyDeleteI could usually handle the classic 8, but even a 16 pack would require me to look at the labels of some of the colors.
I had an Etch A Sketch and Play Doh, but I was usually drawn toward Lego, and eventually it was all about the K'nex for me. I built all sorts of Ferris wheels and roller coasters, entertaining myself for weeks on end.
Mikey--How did I not know you were colorblind? And let me just say Right Here, Right Now that I am highly resentful and downright angry about Crayola retiring original colours and making new colours to replace them with dumb names. IS NOTHING SACRED? LEAVE MY CHILDHOOD ALONE.
DeleteAhem. Had to be said.
I'm sorry that something so basic is a chore for you. And that it steals your joy. Truly.
I remember K'nex. I was SO HAPPY that Jared and Sam were not interested in them. They looked like a nightmare to me. In truth, they didn't even like Legos. However, for kids who loved building and engineering things, K'nex were incredible. That you could build actual working things must have been so cool.
I think at one point I had built a five foot tall roller coaster with a loop that actually functioned. It was really awesome. Of course, back then the sets were larger and cheaper. I think K'nex has gone the sh of Lego (smaller, branded, more expensive sets).
DeleteI remember when I was in high school biology, the teachers would have us color in diagrams of different parts of the human body, so each part was a different color and we would hand our own "key" to see the different organs in someone's abdomen, or the different parts of a cell, and I just flat out refused. It wouldn't help me to have something with 15 different colors used to distinguish things; it would just make things more complicated. A total waste of time.
Also, a lot of the maps in textbooks where colors were used to measure some sort of quantity were utterly useless to me because they usually used different shades of red and green on the opposite sides of the spectrum, which I couldn't tell apart.
Mikey--This sounds so difficult and daunting. I never really thought about all the ways that a colorblind person is at a disadvantage, especially at school using textbooks or in standardized testing. I'm a little bit amazed that this was never covered or even mentioned in all my training, ever.
DeleteI loved colouring as well, but I don't think I had the fancy 64 crayons! I would have wanted it though. I had a Cabbage Patch Doll which I loved, and paper dolls were probably my very favourite. I loved dressing them up and making up stories. I also had a dollhouse which my grandpa made for me, and I loved that too. I didn't have roller skates but I liked hula hooping and skipping.
ReplyDeleteNicole--Go get yourself a box now and experience the joy!
DeleteMy younger sister was the right age for the Cabbage Patch trend. Hers came all the way from New Jersey where my older sister lived because they were impossible to get here in Ohio at the time. I got one too, just because. Where is it now? No idea.
Paper dolls were my fave, too, and I made them myself all the time, including their vast wardrobes (check my comment to Ortizzle for a link). They had incredible lives, in my head.
Do you still have the dollhouse that your grandfather made for you? I'm sure it was wonderful and full of warm memories. What a lovely gift.
Yep, I had the same skates. the brand new 64 box of crayons - was there really ever anything better than that? I would have to add a hula hoop and Barbie dolls to the list.
ReplyDeleteMartha--Nothing ever topped a brand new box of 64s. Nothing.
DeleteI remember having a hula hoop. It was neon pink and had a bearing in it or something that made the "shoop shoop" sound. I'm sure that I was quite the sight, a very short, stocky girl with no waist writhing around. LOL
Roller skates: I never used a skate key because I wasn’t all that interested in roller skating, although my sister loved it, so I have actually seen a skate key, lol; that was the only kind of skates you could get back then. As for me: I always wanted to learn to ice skate, and was mesmerized watching the skaters in the Winter Olympics. But there was never a skating rink near any of the places I lived growing up.
ReplyDeleteToys I loved / Things I loved doing:
- Crayola 64 crayons! Oh, the glory of all those colours!
- Water colour paints
- Pick-up sticks
- Kaleidoscopes
- Tinker Toys
- Etch-a-Sketch… I was addicted to this, and could actually do cursive writing on it.
- Number slide puzzle
- Easy Bake Oven
- Toy sewing machine: made clothes for my troll dolls, lol.
- Paper dolls – Loved making & coloring paper outfits for them. ***
N.B. — Contrary to most of my friends, I detested Barbie dolls.
Stuff that looked cute, but got old after about 5 minutes:
- Mr. Potato Head, Wooly Willy, Slinky, Silly Putty
*** I seem to remember us talking about making paper doll clothes in a long ago post…
Your jump rope story made me laugh! I only remember doing it on the school playground. Some kids were really good and could do something I think was called “double Dutch” where you use 2 jump ropes simultaneously. I had two left feet for that, but loved watching how good other kids were at it.
Ortizzle--Your memory is impressive when it comes to my posts. I did, indeed, write about making my own paper dolls here. It was a hobby I had for years and years of my childhood, and I'd make vast collections of clothes for them, too.
DeleteYour list of toys is pinging my memories. I adored kaleidoscopes! I used to get them as Christmas gifts often. They became a favourite after I was given one as a gift when I was in the hospital for two weeks as a 9-year old. It made lying in that bed much more tolerable. And I bought my little sister an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas one year with my paper route money! I think I got just as much fun from it as she did.
I completely agree with you about Silly Putty, Slinky, and Mr. Potato Head.
Double Dutch was way out of our lane and we knew it. I don't think we even tried it, but I'll ask Susan. I still don't see how anyone can do it.
Thanks for the link to that post on your paper dolls. I'm still so impressed with all of your imaginative designs.
DeleteSomething I forgot to comment on: Spirograph. I did not recognize that at all. Looked it up, and apparently it was invented by a British engineer. It wasn't introduced in the States until 1966. By that time, I was 14, and I suppose my parents didn't think I would be interested. They would have been wrong, though, because it looks like a lot of fun and I would have spent hours playing with that! And probably constantly buying replacement pens, lol.
So interesting to read about everyone's childhood "toy journey." I keep finding things that I also liked but forgot to mention. 😂
Yes, skates with keys to lock them to your shoes, and wreck the shoes. My kids had the same kind as small children, but the YD got dedicated skate boots as an adult. So did the grandkid. Ah, the passing of a fine tradition of mashed shoe soles. And mashed knees, etc. We played hopscotch more than skip rope because we had a fine dirt alley behind our houses to make the grid on. And I found Etchasketch boring; Jim's brother had one.
ReplyDeleteYes, except my aunt the art teacher gave me exotic stuff like watercolour pans and the proper paper. And that brings up paper dolls, a staple of my childhood. I don't remember much about the first place we lived. It was really small and my mother was a demon housekeeper, so I am sure it was not littered with toys. Our second house, my bedroom had a long, narrow closet with a light in it and that is where all my 'stuff' was. There was one wall that I made into a paper house and all my paperdolls hung in it somewhere.
Looking at the comment above, I recall 'double Dutch'. We skipped rope at recess at school. On a concrete yard. Ow.
Mary--Yes! You invariably clamped them so tightly that you dented or eventually pulled off the soles. I loved to street skate. Skating on the sidewalk meant dealing with rougher and segmented surfaces, so we all took to the asphalt and were careful to look for pebbles or other detritus that would send us sprawling.
DeleteWe also played hopscotch, chalking the boards ourselves on the sidewalk. It got old fast, though. Not much in the way of variation there.
What a great idea for your paper dolls! I adored paper dolls and made my own all the time, including their clothes. I wish I had thought of something like that. How clever.
We jumpers on E. 38th Street knew our limitations. We never tried to double Dutch.
This is so much fun. I love learning about young Nance, and the epic battles with your sister. I'm here for it. So fun that Theo had his first play date. How did he get that old all ready?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite toys were dolls. I loved dolls and I played with them behind closed doors in my bedroom through 8th grade because I knew I was way too old, and I'd be laughed at. I couldn't wait to be a mom: shock. I also loved our Fischer Price toys like the castle, the hospital, the village, the school house. We had so many and my sibs and I would line them all up and play with them for hours. We had a ton of Star Wars toys too. My brothers let me play, but I could only be Princess Leia. That ticked me off.
I loved crayons. Funny story, my grandma felt sorry for me (at least someone did), because my brother was born before I was a year old and I had two older sisters and then when I was 2.5 another brother was born. A few years later, we lived in Iowa and she arrived for a visit and brought little gifts for all of us. My siblings all got a box of 8 or 12 crayons, and I got a box of 64 crayons with a sharpener in the back. What on earth? It wasn't even my birthday. My sibs were ticked. I felt like a damn princess. I would NOT share.
Ernie--Susan and I had lots of them. She had a terrible temper. We're very close now. Theo will be TWO in less than two weeks. He is over three feet tall and is so heavy that I struggle to lift him. He's a very sturdy kid with a mouth full of teeth and words. It seems impossible.
DeleteI played dolls well into 8th grade because I grew up in a different time and I had a younger sister. Barbies weren't a thing for little, little girls. They were a Fashion Doll, and older girls played with them. I played all the Fisher Price little town stuff with my kids and loved it. Those things were awesome!
Your grandmother was a treasure. She knew. And because she was Grandma, she could do whatever the hell she wanted. Those crayons MADE YOU a princess. I bet she told your mom not to make you share, too. What a terrific story.
I remember once when I was sick, my brother went to the store and bought me a coloring book of baby animals, and OMG did I love that coloring book. I had a jump rope that I loved. I had a Spirograph that I loved. My cousin had a lite brite that I coveted. My favorite ‘game’ was my dog Samantha. We played and played and played. My friend Aimee and her dog, Blossom. We would make them treats in her easy bake oven. Quite a few years later, my friend Mindy and her dog, Joey, we would train them to jump over garbage cans (upright!). She was my darling girl, the best dog ever. I have adored all of my three dogs, but oh, Samantha was the best friend a girl could have. So patient, smart, and kind. I had her for 16 years, from ages 6 to 22. I can’t even imagine, but there she was.
ReplyDeleteBah, dolls. NEVER interested, though I loved my Smokey Bear and other stuffed animals. Samantha was married for a bit to my Donald Duck, but they got divorced. (I was a weird kid.)
Wasn't Spirograph the best? I could make those cool designs for hours on end, so curious to see what would result from choosing which disk and which hole for my pen. It wasn't long before the supplied heavy pinboard they supplied was too full of pinholes to keep things anchored.
DeleteOur dog didn't come along until I was in high school, so I didn't grow up with dogs as you did. I can tell you had so much fun with yours. With such great and happy companions, who needs many toys? It sounds as if you had all you needed with your Samantha (btw, my favourite name EVER).
Too bad about the marital problems, but I couldn't stay married to that guy very long, either.
This is so fun and brought back a lot of memories! Oh yes, I loved crayons, and ALL the art supplies. I would draw for hours every day. I still do!
ReplyDeleteMG--Same! I also loved paints and oil pastels. But crayons were my first love. Just the names would transport me: magenta, aquamarine, midnight blue, burnt sienna...and I'm talking the original Crayola colours, not the new ones with the dumb names. I'm glad you still draw and colour. I wish I had my old colouring books. Sigh.
DeleteI had those same roller skates! My biggest memory of them was skating in our unfinished basement & my cousin Kim fell and broke her arm, but none of us believed her. We were the worst. I did like playing with dolls (who always had illegitimate children because I hated boys) & one of my best Christmas memories was getting the Barbie Camper. And I remember that my brother & I got a Light Bright, but instead of using it as intended, we would turn off the lights in his very dark blue bedroom, turn on the Light Bright, and pretend that it was a world where whoever controlled the light won. We had some epic battles between my Barbies and his GI Joe dolls. When I was older, I always got at least one book for Christmas and that was always a treat (although of course I had full access to any book I wanted during the year).
ReplyDeleteBug--Skating in basements was terrifying! All that smooth, smooth concrete was death-defying. There was far more security on asphalt or sidewalks.
DeleteMy sister Susan had the Barbie Camper. It got in a lot of accidents.
How interesting that you and your brother played together. I never played anything with mine. We had a very adversarial relationship. Of course, there were four of us and not only two.
Like you, we always went to the library, but getting my own book was different. I never had to give it back. I could reread it whenever I wanted. That's why I buy books instead of going to the library now.
You always do so well as remembering things in detail, Nance, and help me access recesses of my brain that have been quiet for a long time. Haha. I can imagine Theo's joy on his first playdate. And wow on the setup. Nope, my sister (six years younger) and I never had anything like that. Unless we were using them at the time, our toys were pretty much kept in our rooms.
ReplyDeleteI had a wooden toy piano which I loved, more for its looks than actual playing. I also had a beautiful toy crib (I even remember passing it on to someone in my adulthood) but used it for stuffed animals more than dolls. My sister had dolls but I loved stuffed animals more. I remember having a giant skunk when I was older, given to me by one of my dad's cousins who was like an uncle to us. My mom got rid of it while I was in college and I was so mad. I would have loved to have kept it. We were so happy with those simple stuffed animals and there was hardly any variety compared to what kids have now. The ones I did have for years later were enjoyed and kept in the toy crib. I also had a play wooden ironing board that I adored (can you imagine?) that my dad found at the dump because someone had set it aside hoping it would get another life and it did. I gifted that to our local thrift shop years ago. (Kids now might not even know what it is.) So many of our toys were wooden that they not only lasted but they maintained a certain charm that is not present in plastic toys.
The 64-box of crayons with the sharpener was the ultimate. I loved drawing and coloring in coloring books. (The adult coloring books of today are usually way too tedious and you have to use markers with them because of the tiny spaces. Not something I enjoy.) I loved using the Etch-a-Sketch and was pretty skilled at it. Thinking about that also reminded me about using Magic Slates. Note that I had to look that one up based on what I remembered. The name doesn't sound right but the only alternative I saw was paper saver and that's not right either so I guess what I used was called a Magic Slate. We loved pick up sticks and the game Kerplunk, which uses the same sticks and which I still have. Bo asked me not to give that one away. But we never play it now and he certainly doesn't want to take it on as another "thing" in his life. I remember delighting in Tiddly Winks as a child. More fun than Checkers (the regular ones or Chinese checkers). Kind of amazing how very simple things kept us busy and happy.
We had jump ropes and hula hoops but were not exceptionally skilled at using them. We played a lot of croquet and badminton growing up. Mostly just us kids but the adults occasionally joined in on croquet. I loved it when I was old enough to learn to play horseshoes and was pretty good as long as I played on the regular. (Corn hole seems far less fun and requires less skill but is definitely safer.)
A lot of the toys mentioned thus far were fun but briefly. Slinky, SIlly Putty, and modeling clay (although I went to a sip and sculpt class with a friend on Sunday!) come to mind. I thought the spirograph was cool for the designs you could create but something about the ink factor didn't please me. Too harsh in the colors maybe? Play-Doh got a lot of use at our house though. (As you said, mixing it would have been a cardinal sin.) Oh, and I did enjoy Lincoln Logs. Those were fun for creating. Maybe that time is what led to me designing our house after we couldn't find any houses or house plans we liked. Initially, we even thought we'd build a log home but they tend to be very dark inside, are costly (we built our whole house for what a single story of logs would have cost),. and the resale value is questionable (as a general rule, people who want log homes want to build their own log homes).
Thanks for taking us back, Nance!
Shirley--Lucky you, with a toy piano! I used to want one of those so much. I always wanted to learn piano as a girl, but played flute instead. And, of course, the xylophone, which I think every kid had at one time or another in her life.
DeleteWe each had favourite stuffed animals, too. At one point, my grandmother made very lifelike stuffed kittens, and all three of us girls had one, each a little different. I wish I still had mine. I don't know what happened to it. I've never seen a stuffed skunk! I'm imagining its tail, and I bet it was something!
I think I know what you mean by a Magic Slate--did it have black wax underneath and a flimsy grey film over that, then a sturdier transparent film over all? And you drew on it with a plastic stylus, then erased it all by lifting both films? I loved, loved, loved those! We had them for car trips all the time. I haven't seen one in years!
My brother had a huge can of Lincoln Logs. My little sister had Tinker Toys. I wasn't much into building things like that. I asked for the game Kerplunk for a couple of years in a row at Christmastime and never got it. Maybe my mother took one look at all those marbles and said, "Those will clog up my vacuum and ruin it for sure" or "One more thing for those two girls to fight about."
I'm so glad you enjoyed this post!
What a delightful post, Nance... I was smiling at the thought of a younger you coloring and jumping rope...
ReplyDeleteAnd those were toys I had and enjoyed too across the continental distance! Except for the roller skates--those I wanted very badly, but my cabal of aunts shut me up with "And who will marry you if you break your bones?" Like bones wouldn't heal, or my sole duty in life was to marry... Haha.
I never had an Easy Bake Oven, because it wasn't a thing. I would have lost my mind over that one.
What a lovely playdate for Theo and William! (I did have a yellow cement mixer, and I loved it.)
maya--I jumped so much rope! And would have even moreso except that Susan was such a cheater.
DeleteI'm chuckling at your worried aunts. I'm sure they didn't want you to ruin your face or have any disfigurement that would ruin your chances for a good husband. Some family cling to old ways despite time marching on. I don't have any rollerskating scars, but I do still have some Susan Scars!
Theo and William had a great time parallel-playing, as toddlers do. Jared said it was a lot of running and trading stuffies to cuddle. You'd be Theo's best friend, sharing a cement mixer!
I have admit that I was part of the rollerblade generation, Nance, and I'm not sure I've ever seen actual roller skates in my life. It seems like they might be easier to control? Or is that a crazy thing to say?
ReplyDeleteI was a Lego girl and loved to make things, take them apart, make them again, and try to memorize how they were built. I also liked jigsaw puzzles. I mean, that makes sense, doesn't it?
Engie--Oh, I would think roller skates would be easier! I wouldn't even try rollerblading. I was a total and complete failure on ice skates, and I'd imagine that rollerblades are very similar. Rollerskates have to be at least more stable, although rollerblades might be easier to steer. Rollerskates were a bitch to turn.
DeleteMy little sister was the puzzle girl. To this day, I am not a puzzle person. It feels too much like work to me. I love word puzzles (crosswords, Wordle, etc), but other than that, no. I can see you as a Lego and puzzle person. You do insist upon challenging yourself, and the immediate, tangible rewards of Lego and puzzles are satisfying.
I was terrible at coloring! I did enjoy it, but our crayons were often pretty dull (I was the 4th child so was not even close to the first kid to use them). I would have coloring competitions with my elementary school kid and when we had my mom judge, I'd have her switch pictures with me because I felt my mom would never choose mine and I thought I could trick her by having my friend hold my picture. Well we did not trick her. I don't know why I felt the need to compete over something like coloring!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite toys were our Lite Brite, my barbies, Lincoln Logs and my brothers' massive lego collection. I kind of hate that legos now predominantly come in kits with assembly instructions. They are fun for the kids to do, but I would rather they come up with their own creations. You can buy bricks of legos but they still include a set of instructions. My parents kept a lot of the toys from our childhoods so my boys now play with the toys we played with, like the Fisher Price barn for example. My brother took the legos and I think his boys played with them. My brother usually hosts Thanksgiving and will take out a HUGE totes full of legos which are probably a combo of his childhood legos + the legos from kits his boys (age 17 and 20!) played with.
We have a downstairs play area that is kind of a disaster of toys and balls and such. That's where our little basketball hoop and the magnatiles are. We have a corner of our living room with toys as well. The toys that are most played with are all the little matchbox cars!
Lisa--I guess I didn't realize that Legos no longer come in huge buckets and are now just specific kits. That's such a shame. My boys never cared for Legos, but we do have their one huge bucket still in the crawlspace upstairs just in case a grandchild has interest. We have a LOT of toys in there that we can bring out as Theo ages into them.
DeleteI love your story about the colouring competition. I think it's natural that you wanted to win and have your mom choose your picture. Everyone wants to be The Best at something, and all kids want to have their mom's approval. And blunt crayons are the worst! At our house, the black and red crayons always got worn down the fastest.
My little sister had a Lite Brite, and I loved playing that with her. We used it at night all the time and thought the glow of it was so pretty. I liked that we could make our own designs, too.
My boys loved their Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, too. They had a parking garage and racetracks.
Maybe we--as grownups--need to get a few vintage toys and play more. I bet it would lower our stress a lot.