Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we didn’t have electronic toys. Instead, we grew our imaginations, and anything was possible. It was a magical experience for your toys to come alive…and it was very real. I remember when I began to grow past that stage. Somehow Mother must have known that my toys no longer held their magical powers. She would often sing these words to me, probably understanding the struggle that children have when they begin to leave behind the make-believe world.
Toyland,
toy land
Little girl and boy land
While you dwell within it
You are ever happy there.
~Christmas song by Doris Day
I didn’t have everything I wanted, but I had plenty. One of
my favorite things was a set of Disney characters on wheels that Mother ordered
for me from Montgomery Wards. I waited
anxiously for them to arrive and when they did, they were everything I dreamed
of. I played with them for a long time,
coveted them and took good care not to break them. I appreciated everything
that was given to me and perfected the art of preserving things by storing them
perfectly sometimes in the original packaging.
I never wanted anything broken, and if by chance something did break,
Mother was the master mind at finding a way to fix it.
Other toys of my childhood:
Chatty Cathy – a doll that would talk when you pulled the
string on her back side. She had eyelids that closed and opened.
Mouse Trap Game – I
loved building the sequence during the game to watch the ball navigate all the
way through the maze to finally lower the cage that would capture the mouse.
Creepy Crawlers – was a ‘make your own’ creepy crawlers with
a metal mold over a heated element. I would pour the gel into the mold, heat
it, cool it and then have my own rubbery spiders and centipedes.
Wahoo – a game board to move marbles in order to win. I
never had an official game board because I played this with cousins at Mimi’s
house in Crowell on a homemade board made by Pappy.
Jacks – I mastered sitting in the floor and throwing the
ball up, collecting all the jacks and catching the ball before it hit the floor
a second time. I remember playing this
at church camp…sort of like tournament play.
Skating was a popular pastime, but the skates were clunky, no inline skates back them. They were metal affairs that were tightened with a key until they gripped our shoes, usually. I also had a skateboard that I wanted to love but it was difficult to ride because even the smallest pebble would stop the wheels and throw you off.
