Flashback Friday ~ Playtime!

It’s time to play! Tag you’re it!

What toys do you remember from your childhood?

Memory is a funny thing! I will just start with the snippets of what I can remember.

The Chrissy Doll.

She was a big doll and she had red hair. The unique things about Chrissy was that you could make her pony tail longer by puling it out of a hole in the top of her head. She also had a button on the middle of her back that would retract her hair and then it would wind back up and she would have short hair again.

Of course I played with Barbie's, my mom was a part time seamstress so I had access to all her scraps. I would spend hours making outfits for them out of the scraps. I remember getting very excited when she would get a customer that wanted something made with sequins or shiny material because that meant that I got the fancy scraps.

I remember paper dolls

and spirograph

the Easy Bake Oven

The problem with the Easy Bake Oven was when I ran out of the package mixes then the fun was over for a good while until mom could afford to buy more. When I got an easy bake oven for my own daughter I was very pleased to find a cook book online that actually gave you real recipes using pantry items in easy bake appropriate quantities. That cut out the need to always have those expensive EBO mixes on hand!

What did you like to do to entertain yourself?

I drew, I colored, I loved to play with playdoh.

What I remember most was making paper furniture, I know it sound a bit strange but I had hours of fun. I wish I still had some of these around but sadly I am sure that they have all gone the way of the Dodo Bird. I remember spending hours with a stack of notebook paper and a roll of cellophane tape and a shoe box. I would construct paper furniture. Sofa’s, chairs, bed’s tables and then I would set up my own doll house inside the shoe box. I would color the different pieces of furniture and rearrange them. I would pretend that I was designing the house that I would live in when I was a grown up.

I had to take a trip down memory lane for a few minutes. I was surprised that I even remember how to do it, but this is sort of what most of the little pieces looked like. It was fun and it kept me occupied and since notebook paper was relatively inexpensive we usually had it at hand.

Did you mostly play inside or outside?

Probably about 50/50.

Did you ride a bike all over the neighborhood?

Most of the time we lived in an apartment complex. I do not remember if I had a bicycle, but probably not due to the difficulty of storing it.

Did you have to "get permission" to play at a friend's house, or were you and your friends back and forth between houses all the time?

I am sure I had to get permission. We moved around quite a bit so I don't really remember having a bunch of friends. I do remember being very good friends with a girl named Donna, oddly enough I wrote about my friendship with her in a previous Flashback Friday. She lived downstairs in the apartment below us. My bedroom was directly above hers. We spent a lot of time together.

If you had siblings, was there a distinction between your toys and theirs?

Given the level of sisterly discord that existed between myself and my younger sister I feel certain that there was a definite distinction between what was mine and what was hers. However my memory is a bit fuzzy on those details. I will say that my sister and I are about as different from each other as two people can be. I think it’s a safe bet that our interest in toys was the same way.

Did you "inherit" any toys from older siblings?

Since I am the oldest that would be “NO”

What were the "fad" or "must-have" toys of your generation?

Remember Lite Brite? Everybody wanted one! What fun I had making all the designs and turning off the light and oooohing and aaaaahing at my brilliance pun intended!

Was there a toy you always wanted and never got to have?

I am sure that there were many things that I wanted and never got to have given our less that abundant financial circumstance. We are also talking about things that happen over 40 years ago as well. I have a vague memory of wanting a terrarium and being totally shocked on Christmas morning to find that I had actually gotten something I had asked for under the tree.

Just to help you plan, this week is Part 1 - Toys.

Next week in Part 2, we'll look back at Games and Puzzles. Because hopefully, our childhoods involved lots of playtime!

Well that’s it for me. For more Flashback Friday Fun y’all head over to Mocha with Linda and link up!

Blessings

R