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Thursday, October 12, 2006

Lego Swiss Chalet. It's the first Lego set I remember getting that was a model of something. The Lego I'd had before that was the usual assorted blocks. Interesting--the link shows it as being from 1971, and that seems about right.
Crissy , Velvet , and Mia dolls with "growing" hair. You yank the ponytail on the top of the head to make it grow, then wind it back up with a knob on her back. I got one a year, starting with Crissy in, apparently, 1969. I remember lusting after Dina and Brandi, but the last one I got was Mia.
Hula hoop . According to this article, the Hula Hoop with shoop-shoop noise came out in 1967, and that seems about right, because the shoop-shoop noise was a Big Deal. At the end of every Bozo the Clown show, there was a Hula Hoop contest, and I always hula-hooped along. I played with that thing for years, and I'm not sure how many I ended up going through. My first one was solid orange, and I spent hours at it. The best was when I could start at my head and make it go all the way down to one foot and then reverse it. I never managed to do tricks with more than two at a time, though, because we only had 2, and I had to steal my brother's to do that.
Pogo stick . It was hard to find a picture of this--seems pogo sticks are the Next Big Thing. News to me. I loved mine, and don't remember exactly when I got it. It was after we put a cement floor in the garage, but I don't remember when that was, either. I know that because inside the garage was the only place it was possible to play with it. We lived way out in the country--dirt road, no sidewalks. Indoors was not an option. In typical fashion, I attempted to teach myself to balance on it first. I don't know how many hours I spent trying to stand perfectly still on the darn thing before it finally occurred to me that you had to bounce to stay upright.
Bicycles. Our ticket to go anywhere, particularly the 3 miles to our aunt & uncle's house--they had a pool. My mind boggles now at the idea of biking 3 miles, swimming all afternoon, then biking back home. It boggles even more at the fact that we went alone. I started out with a pink/purple bike with a banana seat and those upright handlebars. But my pride and joy was the year I'd saved my allowance for months and months and, with my parents still paying half, bought myself a brand new orange Schwinn 3-speed.
The Pink Tree. No, not or . The Pink Tree was a tree in our back yard that was cut down when my parents expanded the back yard. My dad removed all the small branches, then painted it Pepto-Bismol pink. It made a perfect jungle gym, and, when I was a bit older, a perfect stage on which to force my brother to play Partridge Family.
The swing . It was just like a standard porch swing, but in miniature, made by my carpenter grandfather. When I was very small, it hung in the doorway to my bedroom, and it's where I learned to read. Later on, it was moved to the basement. I don't remember actually sitting on it very often. Mostly, we stood on it, and did acrobatics on it & the chains. Or tried to smack each other in the head with it. When we got older, there was a big, very sturdy (cast iron? surely not. hugely heavy, though) swingset outside. We mostly ignored the swings and climbed up the legs and hung from the horizontal supports, silver paint flaking off on our hands and legs. There was also a tire swing hanging from the tree in our front yard for a while. I think it's when we stopped swinging on it and moved on to daredevil stunts that it came down.
Malibu Barbie . I had a Midge, with the straight legs, red hair, and freckles before that, but didn't really start playing with them until I got the Malibu Barbie and Ken. And Skipper. I wasn't real happy with the bendy legs, and Malibu Barbie experienced an unfortunate amputation after a year or so. My last Barbie was the Growing-Up Skipper. You twisted her arm around and she got taller & grew boobs. By the time I got her, though, I was more interested in making clothes for the Barbies than playing with them.
My uncle was a great source of toys. He worked for a radio station, and had a radio/TV repair shop. So we had a big TV console, sans TV, in the basement, with a record player in it, and a huge stack of 45s that he'd brought home from the radio station. They were mostly country, but there were quite a few novelty and comedy songs as well. I knew all of them by heart, and they provided accompaniment for performances on the swing, or by the Barbies.
Then there was the dollhouse, which was Not Your Usual Dollhouse. I didn't have any dolls or furnishings that went with it, but I loved it anyway. It was a scale model of our house, made by my grandfather, probably about 3 feet long and half that wide. Later on, I built furniture out of Lego for it.
Chinese jump rope . Oh, my friends and I played with regular jump ropes, too, and were very good at it, but the Chinese jump ropes were our passion. Easier to keep in a pocket until recess time, and we loved making intricate patterns with it. For us, it was pretty much the foot version of cat's cradle, which we also spent a lot of time playing. It was rare if you couldn't find somebody with a loop of string in her pocket. Oddly, I was able to coerce my little brother into playing cat's cradle, but the Chinese jump rope had to wait for school.
Paper dolls . These are Betsy McCall dolls, and you could get clothes for them in McCall's magazine, which was really cool. I was introduced to paper dolls by a babysitter, and was immediately hooked. You used to be able to get them in the coloring book display--a book with one or two paper dolls, then several pages of clothes to punch out. I used to keep them in manila folders.
John Deere lawn tractor . Or riding lawn mower. I donno. My dad called it a lawn tractor. And that's obviously a newer model than the one we got in the late 60s/early 70s. And yeah, it's not a toy, but we sure thought it was. The best was the first year or two when I was old enough to drive it, but my brother wasn't. We'd beg to mow the yard. Until the day I ran over a garter snake and completely creeped myself out.




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// posted by Darla @ 10/12/2006 09:37:00 AM

Comments:

Great list! :) I LOVED Lego as a child. :) Played with it all the time, and was even a member of the Lego fan club at one point! {Yes, I'm a geek. ;) }

Happy TT and thanks for stopping by. :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/12/2006 1:36 PM

i wonder if I could still stay on a pogo stick?

# posted by

Carmen : 10/12/2006 1:45 PM

What neat memories! I think my favorite was of the pink tree. VERY personal and creative!

Thanks for visiting my Thursday Thirteen, too. ;)

# posted by

Chaotic Mom : 10/12/2006 2:04 PM

What a cool post..I dont want to use the hoola hoop again but it did bring back memories

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/12/2006 2:15 PM

What a wonderful list, brings back a lot of childhood memories!
Thanks for stopping by!

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/12/2006 2:18 PM

I can confirm, once you know how to Pogo, always you know. I tried recently and although the center of gravity has moved up (and lots more gravity), the gesture is still there. Delightful post and thanks for stopping by.

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/12/2006 4:57 PM

Crissy, Velvet and Mia!!!!! How cool! I had those too.
what a fun list this week.
thanks for visiting my tt. have a great day!

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/12/2006 5:28 PM

Now the growing hair-that could have been fun to eat. However, the woman got real nostalgic at a lot of those!

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/12/2006 5:29 PM

What a great list. I had a Ken doll that danced on a little stage. He wore very hip bell bottoms and a fringed suede vest.
My brother had a big collection of REAL GI Joe dolls and all the vehicles. He loved them.
Thanks for visiting me and sharing this great list.
Frances

# posted by

Frances D : 10/12/2006 5:56 PM

I was crazy about the huge oak tree we had in our backyard. It was an awesome place to play, read & just have time to myself. I want nothing more than to give my kids such a tree in our backyard but hubby refuses to plant any trees in our yard. *bummer* Great list!

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/12/2006 6:06 PM

Those are some of the toys I bought my children when they were young. They liked they chinese jumprope to play with their friends.

Thanks for stopping by.

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/12/2006 8:43 PM

Oh this was super fun, love the photos and the colours are different to todays marketing huh...it's like a little time travel, thanks for sharing!

Here's mine

http://gnosticminx.blogspot.com/2006/10/thirteen-random-things-i-am-thinking.html

# posted by

Candy Minx : 10/12/2006 8:59 PM

WOW all those toys sure does bring back memories!

The chinese jump rope was my favorite as kids. My friends and I are always playing this :)

# posted by

Julia : 10/12/2006 9:13 PM

Boy ,what a trip down memory lane. Especially the chinese jump rope. My brothers and I played that until we were almost adults. I would almost think that if I pulled one out we'd do a round or two. Hmmm.

Cool. My TT's up too.

# posted by

Pfingston : 10/12/2006 10:29 PM

I loved Chinese jumpropes--or regular ones too. We loved jumping double dutch.

# posted by

Scribbit : 10/12/2006 11:37 PM

you definitely brought back some happy memories from childhood.

Happy TT!

# posted by

angeleque : 10/13/2006 5:39 AM

I remember the Betsy McCall dolls. And wasn't it McCall's magazine that had "Can This Marriage Be Saved"? Or was that Reader's Digest?

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/13/2006 7:05 AM

I think it was, Doug. I remember it, at least.

# posted by

Darla : 10/13/2006 9:49 AM

ooh these are old toys!
Thanks for visiting my TT and have a great day!

# posted by

Anonymous : 10/13/2006 1:20 PM

Love your list! Love Lego - and the one (and only - for obvious reasons) time I rode a riding lawn mower, I turned my uncle's shed into a drive-through. No one told me that you couldn't park in 4th gear. :D

Thanks for visiting my TT!

# posted by

Trish Ess : 10/13/2006 4:04 PM

Great list. I remember playing with some of those toys. My husband (31 yrs old) still plays w/ Legos. We have 5 kids, so he says he buys them for the kids, but I know he buys them so he can play. My T13 is up late

# posted by

Shaylondon : 10/13/2006 8:23 PM

Great list of toys. I still have some one those for my boys.
Happy TT!

# posted by

BlondeBrony : 10/14/2006 4:27 AM

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Thursday, October 12, 2006

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