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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Treetotal on Saturday 04 March 23 14:39 GMT (UK)
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When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I had a clockwork penguin which, when wound up with a key, would waddle, then it would squat and lay an egg. It kept me amused for hours according to my Mum. I watch antiques Roadshow in the hope that one day, one like it would come up.
Which favourite toy would you bring back?
Answers on a postcard please!! ;D
Carol
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Well I still have mine,a real China tea set, and a tiny glass fruit set.
Second hand ,bought during the war ,so must now be well over a hundred years old as I am almost eighty six.
I would be four or five.
We had very few toys but played with what we found ,playing outside for the most part.
Flowers adorned mud pies and transformed them into spectacular wedding cakes etc.
A few bits of broken crockery from the waste heap were a full dinner service to us.
We served hawthorn berries.empty snail shells, hazelnuts, rose hips ,pussy willows and the brown seeds from dock plants.Blackberries, and wild raspberries.
However we did have fantastic play material, the remains of the most productive lead mine in the country.
All the machinery was still in situ ,some still had moveable parts although almost a hundred years had passed since last used.
We diverted little streams,played on the two little side tank engines left rusting outside the engine shed.
Picked through the waste for sparkling lumps of “ spar”,the waste which had the veins of lead running through .
It was a wonderful playground but I still go cold to think of what danger we were in.
We had no supervision ,but somehow monitored ourselves.
No quarrels ,you have to get on with everyone in a small village - well a hamlet really.
When I see the number of toys today’s children have —- bedrooms bulging .
We learnt physics and maths from our play, incidentally but nevertheless things fell into place when doing those subjects at secondary school.
Not specifically toys but a deck of playing cards and a box of dominoes gave hours of amusement ,we learnt number bonds and I still count in the configuration of playing cards .
Imagination is the best toy ever and that comes from adaptability and substitution .
But times change and it is possible such skills will not be needed in the future.
All I can say is we had tremendous fun,were never bored , never felt there was nothing to do.
Viktoria.
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Thank you, Viktoria, for the word "spar" - I think it may be the answer to a quiz question!
When I was about 10, we spent much of one summer messing about in an old chalk pit in the village. I still have my best doll, and a pattern-making game of coloured wooden diamonds and triangles,as well as a few jigsaws, including a 1953 coronation one.
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I agree with you both and thanks for sharing, we did find most of our fun outdoors, as there was four of us, we often shared toys and games. I preferred to draw and paint or read when we were indoors.
I Was really reflecting on what toys people played with that they treasured.
Just a fun, light hearted post. Times have changed Victoria and our parents said the same when our two children were growing up, it's a generational thing.
Carol
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When I was clearing out some of my mother's stuff, I came across a 'baby book' that she compiled to record my progress. It noted that, as an infant, my favorite toy was a paper bag with rice grains in it. By age two, it was my Mother Goose book. After that, she didn't bother with further records. For my own part, I think I'd like to have my set of 'Golden Nature Books.' I think I had them all - trees, birds, pond life, minerals, etc.
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We had books like that, but they were the Observer Books on various subjects, they were only small. Love the "Rice in a paper bag"
Thanks for sharing.
Carol
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Picked through the waste for sparkling lumps of “ spar”,the waste which had the veins of lead running through .
The place where I live was a major source of spar, or Celestine, it was mined here back in the day. Roads are named after the mineral.
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That is true Carol ,and the skills learnt from our practical play might not be necessary in today’s world ,but they were / are foundation skills .
We certainly needed them at certain times.
But some needs change ,and home repairs are almost things of the past.
Who darns socks ? Ido ,love it.
Viktoria.
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I've still got a few of my childhood toys. A pink puppy, a rubber doll with eyes that closed and a teddy bear that has a musical box in it. The tune it plays is Rock-a-bye baby.
The puppy pre-dates the bear and I recall having the bear when I was three. I am in my late sixties now. A youngster no doubt in comparison to our older Rootschatters.
We had those old card games of snap, old maid and donkey that we played. Snakes and ladders, ludo and tiddlywinks. Life was in many ways simpler then as the internet was some way off in the future.
The house I lived in as a child had a porch and the inside front door had stained glass in it. My sister and I used to play churches in that.
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You have brought back memories GG. I remember being delighted at getting a compendium of games
Which had all the games you mention. I only ever asked for a tin of paints and a drawing book.
There were four of us so the games could be played together, until the arguments started, then it would be confiscated.
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My mum kept quite a few toys from my childhood, which my children then played with and now the grandchildren do ! My metal till is currently in eldest grandsons school as part of their ' bring a toy from the old days into school' . I asked him what the other children thought of it and he didn't say a lot , so I don't think they were impressed. He and I had already had conversations about pre decimal money and what all the press down keys meant. He did say it was made of metal and not plastic lol.
One of my favourite toys which I still have was my dolls bungalow - White walls, red roof which lifted off and a red garage door which lifted up with string ( the garage was integral to the house and there was no wall between the garage and the rest of the bungalow). A typical 1960's aspirational bungalow. I played with it for HOURS! Then when our daughters were young, my husband made an extra floor from plywood to the exact size and painted it white and the roof then fitted on top to make it a two storey. There's no stairs so the figures have to leap from the ground floor to the top floo lol.
Our youngest daughter used her playmobil figures in it and she was bought the dolls house playmobil furniture for it too. This was mainly because the playmobil dolls house was far too expensive for us to buy!
My other favourite was Britains garden complete with greenhouse, pond, flower beds, lawns and a lawn mower etc. Still have that in the loft.
The toy I've considered buying second hand is spellmaster, a Spears brand tile spelling toy. It'd be great for the grandchildren and I wish that one had been kept.
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My favoutite toy, or so I’m told was the pre-decessor of the 13 Amp plug which I would dismantle and re-assemble on a regular basis. Why I didn’t end up becoming an electrician has never been revealed!
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Born in 1940 with no older siblings toys as such were almost non existent, so, I would bring back “freedom” the freedom to roam, to climb trees, to explore the abandoned Royal Navy target range and many more.
Mike
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I agree. We were turned loose in the morning and expected to be home for supper at 6 o/c. If we were late on a summer evening, my father would make a poor attempt at mess call on the trumpet.
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You're all going to laugh - it was my 1962 Barbie and the three others in the family that followed her in the next few years. My mother made clothes, had only one "real" Barbie outfit. Upset when my mother persuaded me to give the whole kit and kaboodle away to my younger cousins.
In 1961 we went to New York state, i had saved some money, and we went into a toy shop in Lake George. There was a display of Barbies and I wanted one so badly! My mother would not let me buy one, she though I was too young. Might have been the first time I'd seen them. So the next year she let me pick one out back home when I finished grade 2 - no pony-tailed ones left, but I settled for the short haired one.
Many happy hours playing with them and with other girls who had them too.
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My other favourite was Britains garden complete with greenhouse, pond, flower beds, lawns and a lawn mower etc. Still have that in the loft.
I had that too, spent hours playing with it, very fiddly trying to put the flowers on the stalks and bushes.
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You're all going to laugh - it was my 1962 Barbie and the three others in the family that followed her in the next few years.
I had a dark haired Sindy doll and her little sister Patch. I wanted to have an action man, but wasn't allowed one!
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You're all going to laugh - it was my 1962 Barbie and the three others in the family that followed her in the next few years.
I had a dark haired Sindy doll and her little sister Patch. I wanted to have an action man, but wasn't allowed one!
OH was in the forces and I hadn't seen the Action Man toy until we came back to England one October and I saw a little neighbour with one.
I bought one for our young son and as soon as my OH saw it he was aghast that I had bought our impressionable son a doll!
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Sindy was sold here but they were hard to find. I think Action Man was something like the US toy GI Joe.
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<whisper>
I've still got my Sindy dolls tucked away somewhere, (One blonde, one brunette) and little sister Patch and 'Sindy's boyfriend Paul'.
</whisper>
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My second son was fascinated with thev closing eyes of my French Bisque doll .It was lovely and I did not want it to get damaged.
He was lonely when his older brother started school ,so I got him a doll, which spent its life tied to the back of his little tricycle .
Could not find a boy doll but “ Patsy” —- trade name—- had short hair ,so passed for a boy.I knitted pants and jumper.
Forgot about it when he went to school ,I gave it back to him when I moved house six years ago.
Aaaaaw!
Viktoria.
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I remember having to wait until my Birthday for a Hula Hoop. All my friends had them but I didn't, it paid off though, by the time I got mine they made them with beads in, so it rattled when you spun it.
We also had a huge skipping rope that everyone could join in when the rope was turned. I liked playing double ball against the wall, singing a rhyme in time to the throwing of the 🏀s
Thanks for sharing your memories on here.
Carol
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Born in 1940 with no older siblings toys as such were almost non existent, so, I would bring back “freedom” the freedom to roam, to climb trees, to explore the abandoned Royal Navy target range and many more.
Mike
I agree. We were turned loose in the morning and expected to be home for supper at 6 o/c. If we were late on a summer evening, my father would make a poor attempt at mess call on the trumpet.
It was pretty much the same in the 1960s, we'd make our own entertainment.
My late Grandfather was a gardener at the County Council Nursery and the adjacent County Depot stored the old fire engines and old council equipment being scrapped. My grandfather use to take us to his work and we use to play on the old fire engines.
Grandfather salvaged some chair or cart wheels and axles and I made a go-cart.
My Father was buying our house and had no money to buy us toys to begin with. Our School uniforms were purchased with FIS (Family Income Supplement).
I'd been seriously ill and nursed at home and my Father suddenly appeared with a Scalextric racing set and extra track. It was quite a nice shock.
I still have my disused train set I saved up for and part of my model car collection.
Mark
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I had a space hopper in the 60s big bouncy ball with a face and horns for handles
You could bounce as high or as gently as you wanted I think it would be good to have now as an exercise ball but with the benefit of something to hold on to .
Was it a short-lived craze or does anyone else remember them . I had a pogo stick too and sister had stilts . But I wouldn't bring them back even if it did keep us outside .
Liked playing games with the neighbours we lived in a close ( cul de sac ) so took over the road as well as the pavements
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I had a space hopper in the 60s big bouncy ball with a face and horns for handles
You could bounce as high or as gently as you wanted I think it would be good to have now as an exercise ball but with the benefit of something to hold on to .
Was it a short-lived craze or does anyone else remember them . I had a pogo stick too and sister had stilts . But I wouldn't bring them back even if it did keep us outside .
Liked playing games with the neighbours we lived in a close ( cul de sac ) so took over the road as well as the pavements
Oh I remember that space hopper, I bounced on a friend's hopper, backward and hit my head on the ground.
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I had a space hopper in the 60s big bouncy ball with a face and horns for handles
You could bounce as high or as gently as you wanted I think it would be good to have now as an exercise ball but with the benefit of something to hold on to .
Was it a short-lived craze or does anyone else remember them . I had a pogo stick too and sister had stilts . But I wouldn't bring them back even if it did keep us outside .
You can still buy space hoppers today - just google that well known retailer beginning with A and you'll see a range of them so you can exercise to your hearts content lol x
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I remember not one but TWO (and at one point three) Dolls Houses! There's one I still have, packed up in the loft, a Triang pretty basic one, with shoe-boxes of furniture, mostly bought in Wayfarers Arcade Toy shop in Southport, enough to furnish a couple of mansions!
I was given a really large late Victorian one, but it had woodworm, so was banished to the cellars. A somewhat smaller family one was passed on to another family, but I never really went for dolls - had some of those lead-footed pipecleaner ones, and made a couple more with barbola heads, along same lines, as I thought the bought ones looked pretty rubbish. Last time I saw those they too were nestling in a shoebox, under tiny quilts and propped up against tiny pillows! One whole shoebox was certainly full of red plastic kitchenware and tin kitchen things like sinks abd fridges!
I had one doll that actually had a name, still have her, depleted mohair wig and all.
Was given a Bayko building set when I was ill in bed for a short time. Added completion/conversion sets to it. Drew out my own plans - usually after I'd built a structure. Despite the fiddly rods and wonky windows, loved that - guess where the original, and at least two of the follow-up sets are? In the far corners of that same loft. Forgotten what a magpie I can be.
Think I've kept as many childhood books as possible, unfortunately my Mum gave most of them away when I was away at college!( She'd missed the ones in the bookcase behind the attic door in my room! Old favourites like "Wind in the Willows" and "Grimm's fairytales at least were saved) I pressured her to try to buy them back, but some gone for ever. A bookseller I knew went pale when I said she'd got rid of ALL the early "Chalet School" books by Elinor M Brent-Dyer, I'd been given them by an older lady, her daughter no longer wanted them, and I devoured them, adding more for birthdays and Christmas. Many were, I realised later, first editions!
- now, I wonder what else is up there? Must have a look....
TY
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Brigidmac
The Victoria and Albert Museum seem to have kept a hopper.
I remember not one but TWO (and at one point three) Dolls Houses! There's one I still have, packed up in the loft, a Triang pretty basic one, with shoe-boxes of furniture, mostly bought in Wayfarers Arcade Toy shop ...
but I never really went for dolls - had some of those lead-footed pipecleaner ones, ...
Was given a Bayko building set when I was ill in bed for a short time.
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- now, I wonder what else is up there? Must have a look....
TY
I think some toys boxed and bagged are in the loft. Take care on your footing etc.
My Granddaughter has similar bendy figures and we acquired a used Dolls House, but it looks like new.
Mark
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Thanks for the memory and suggestion
No room in my tiny flat but good to know spacehoppers are still going strong ...and still orange .
I wonder if there's a way of knowing if they are vintage or new !
I still have a horse/dog that my mum made from cuttings off fake fur coat she made for herself .
It was made with beautiful white mane but age 2 . I insisted it was a dog . So we agreed to disagree 😊
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Now that the thread has moved on from which toys we would bring back, to our own favourite toys, I'm back again with my own favourites when I was a youngster.
I don't recall any very early toys, except I had a triangular kaleidoscope covered in red leather when I was about 5 years old which I carried about with me.
I remember getting a present of a pack of plasticine and I tried to emulate the older girl next door by keeping the colours separate. Then one day I arrived home from school and found I had a big ball of brown plasticine due to a younger brother having fun. One girl next door and I were of similar age and I think we'd be about 6 years old when we each made ourselves a small woven coloured raffia bag with a long plaited carrying handle so that we could use it as a shoulder bag. This held our school bank book and money..
Being old enough to play outside our garden gate brought new pals and I remember one such pal and I each had a tiny doll which we kept in a matchbox and carried everywhere with us. Depending what was available they'd be laid in comfort inside bedding of cotton wool taken from the tops of medicine bottles and dressed in a simple robe that we'd made. If I went out to play I always took my skipping rope and my pockets held a small ball, which were juggled using shed walls. I think I managed to juggle 5 balls if I stood far enough back from the fence :-) . The year Santa gave me a pair of skates was the time I never took them off my feet, even to go shopping for my mother.
I was a child during austerity war years and directly afterwards. Our primary school day began with everyone in the assembly hall warming up by skipping the polka around the assembly hall. Then we'd all have to line up in our age groups for inspection. We had to have clean polished footwear, Our hands had to be held out so that teacher could see we had clean hands and there was no dirt underneath our nails, plus we held a clean handkerchief in our hand. Every Christmas and birthday since I became five years old I received at least one box of fine Irish linen handkerchiefs with either my initial or some pretty flowers embroidered on them. ;D
They take up one full drawer in my dressing table ! Walking to primary school was practically the only time we girls played with the boys. We each owned a few glass marbles and we'd scooped a few bunkers in the grass verges on the way to school. We each had to hit another person's marble to claim it as our own - the bunker was a safe place.
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Oh, the kaleidoscope ,ours was wonderful, I have never seen another so interesting .
Did not need turning ,you just shook it up and a totally different pattern appeared.
I would bring that back ,much better than modern ones.
I loved the board games,snakes and ladders,ludo.
Dominoes, we built with those.
I have mentioned these before but they were a constant source of amusement ,some very very old false teeth.
They transformed us into madly attractive adults, and a long orange tasselled lampshade fringe that doubled as a wig added to our allure.
Boy we were Bobby dazzlers -big teeth teeth and long orange hair ,there was a full length mirror so we performed in front of that.
I wish I had a photograph .
Viktoria.
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The Christmas just after my 5th or 6th birthday I had a twin doll’s pram. I wanted to go out for a walk and of course I wanted both hoods up even though I couldn’t see over the top. I walked proudly beside my grandad. He was a silent man but I remember that walk as one of the best of my life. We walked so far my dad came looking for us as Christmas Dinner was ready.
One morning the following year I woke up and there was a blue carrycot with a Rosebud doll in it. The doll had the most beautiful dress with drawn thread work. 66 years later that doll sits by my bed. She has two more beautiful sets of clothes and a party dress that matched my party dress and some knitted clothes knitted by by the mother in law of my 103 year old family friend. Strangely enough I’ve recently discovered that Rosebud dolls were made inWellingborough. I lived there for 15 years in the 7O and 80s.
I had a fuzzy felt set when I was about 5 which I enjoyed.I had a Bayko building set bought at a jumble sale. I loved that to. As a family we played games on a Sunday evening on the trolley made by grandad for my parents’ wedding. We played card games, Monopoly ( I hated it), Scoop ( a newspaper game) and Careers. Anyone remember the Spirograph I’ve got one of those.
I had loads of books most from jumble sales. I loved school and adventure stories. I spent hours in my bedroom reading. Unfortunately we moved when I was 14 and I wasn’t allowed to take any of my children’s books only the classics. I was given a small box and I secreted my 3 Chalet school books in the bottom. My beloved doll was allowed to move because of her beautiful clothes.
I regret all those books they’d have been useful in my classroom. I also spent hours playing schools with my dolls and soft toys. I spent a lot if time alone in my bedroom having been sent there by my mother for some crime I hadn’t always done but you didn’t argue with her, her hand or the wet dish cloth, you ran upstairs and didn’t come down until it was allowed. Mind you that could be hours later as she’d forget she sent you there.
Once I had spare money in the 90s I started buying more Chalet School books. By then I was living in South Yorkshire and used to go to book fairs in Buxton and there was a good secondhand book shop in Holmfirth. I now have a bookcase full and usually read them once a year. Generally when I’m feeling down. People have been writing fill in titles which adds to the series.
My balance was and is rather poor and I was always twisting my ankles as a kid. I never mastered my neighbour’s pogo stick and was hopeless on roller skates. I mastered my scooter and later a bicycle. I inherited my brother’s big tricycle, it was red when he had it and blue when I had it.
We lived in a close with a grass circle at the top so we played out a lot as there were rarely any cars about. Funnily enough at the other end of the close there was a small park but we never played there. The park was in London but our close was in Kent!
At weekends we’d go further into Kent for a picnic 4 adults and 3 kids in a Standard 10! We regularly overheated on Pole Hill. The exhaust used to fall of too.
My dad bought an ex forces dinghy from somewhere and in the summer it was blown up and all the kids in the close had a wonderful time playing in it. Where summers always hot then? We lived in our swimming costumes in the school summer holidays.
I managed to carry on reading the Chalet School books after we moved. Going to the library was one of the things I was allowed to do so in the school holidays off I’d go to New Eltham and Eltham library and come back with a lot of books I wanted to read and a couple that my mother thought I should read. Then get home and secrete the children’s books in my hiding places!
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Some long forgotten toys that I remember from my childhood days. It's great to read everyone's stories, they reinforce our memories.
I had a Petite typewriter which was tin and it had a wheel to select the letter that you needed. I also had a John Bull printing set. Photo favourite books were The Famous Five and The Secret Seven, They are so dated now but I loved reading them.
We learned to read at school with the very boring "Janet and John" books, they had a picture at the top and the text at the bottom.
Carol
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Some lovely memories here.
Had forgotten about fuzzy felt - I loved creating scenes with mine and would spend hours happily creating. Also loved jacks (or knucklebones), and many more happy hours spent practicing my skills at home and playing with friends at school. :D
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I was hopeless at Jacks. ;D But they were popular at school - as was the coommunal skipping rope and the shorter individual ropes.
When visiting my grandparents we used to love playing with my father and Uncles 'lead' (yes lead) soldiers and army. . . . . Grandad was one of the mounted officers!
Gran also made us wonderful dress-ups. She made my brother a full sized Spider outfit once. ;D ;D
Living in the country on a small number of acres, we too spent much of our time outside making up games . . . 'riding' the low hanging branch of a wattle tree, digging drains etc etc.
I agree with Mazi - freedom to wander and make up games - . . . wish we had allowed our children the freedom our parents allowed us. :-\ Different world now isn't it.
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I remember the first 'real' book that I read - whole pages of text with no pictures! It was 'The Little House in the Big Woods.' My Aunt Charlotte gave it to me for Christmas when I was six. I sat on the sofa in the living room reading it and calling out to my mother in the kitchen for help with the hard words, "What does s-l-e-i-g-h spell?" My father told me that Granny's parents had been settlers just to the east of Wisconsin's Big Woods region and Grampy's parents had settled to the southeast of it. That was the first time I realized I had ancestors on the frontier who experienced first hand the sort of life described by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
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Yes, fuzzy felt was something I loved, but never owned. But I loved to play with it when we went to our cousin’s house. I got a Space Hopper for Christmas one year, and I suspect my parents probably regretted that, as it was always left somewhere that would be “in the way”.
Like Erato, I do remember favourite books. “Coles Funny Picture Book” was a great love. I found an old well-worn copy at my grandmother’s house (it had belonged to my mother), and I brought it home. It became even more dilapidated over the many years that I treasured it, re-read it, enjoying all the amusing pictures.
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Favourite books . . . Winnie the Pooh, and Blinky Bill. :D
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Oh, goodness, it looks as if we'd like to bring them ALL back!
I also loved plasticine, seemed to make anything out of it, including dolls house inhabitants! Yes, it did all end up brownish lump!
I also had fuzzy felt, and had got some sheets of felt that I cut shapes I thought would add to the sets, from them. Arches and windowframes, I seem to remember.
I had a petite typewriter, very tedious to use for any length of time, and a pair or really posh strap on roller skates that I never even managed to stand up on, let alone move gliding around! Funny that as I've always had an excellent sense of balance! I also had first a sturdy tricycle, think it had been passed down to me, and later a "Rudge" real cycle that my mum rather spoilt by refusing to allow me to use it on "real" roads.
I think modern children would not find most of our memorable items very inspiring or playworthy - perhaps if we stuck a plug on the end of them? But I'm sure dolls still have some charm for most children, and balls and space-hoppers. And teddy bears - I was given my first and only one as a 21st present, by a friend who felt I'd been deprived by not ever having one!
TY
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One year my father bought a wooden horse from a fairground closure.
He put it on rockers it was beautiful and we had it for at least 10 years before passing it on to friends/neighbours for some reason they painted it green and set it on a block .!
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My father was a ships carpenter, every night he would bring home off cuts of wood for lighting the fire in the morning. Those off cuts of wood mainly machined smooth and sometimes in complex shapes were my toys. With imagination they became houses, castles, cars, lorries etc. The beauty of it was that there seemed an endless supply.
I remember having a die cast (I think) Standard Vanguard Beetle back car with a small jockey wheel in-between the 2 front wheels. On the top of the roof there was a pinion connected to the wheel, a rubber tube connected the pinion to a small steering wheel so as long as you had three hands you could push it and steer it as well!
I reckon my favourite was again a die cast spud gun. It was better than caps a decent sized potato could keep you armed for quite some time.
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Neale1961, I would get a Coles Funny Picture book for Christmas for a few years.
I was a reader too. I also went to dancing so would often be practicing or performing.
The boy next door and I were both ‘onlys’ so would often play together with whatever we had at the time. An uncle gave me a set of black aeroplanes that were used as identification aides during WW2, so we would play with them. Wasn’t that interested in dolls but got a bride doll one year and a black doll the next Christmas. My mother always wanted a black doll. They would get new clothes each Christmas. The cat liked them and would curl up on them.
Pets were another thing. During my childhood we had cats, rabbits, budgies, fish quite a menagerie at one time. When our neighbours went out their dog would come over to our house.
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I loved Enid Blyton books - all the fairy stories and the boarding school ones!
I also loved my 'Tiny Tears' doll with the pink gingham rompers. Happy days! :D
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ThrelfallYorky, one year at the school where I worked, the top class had been particularly difficult (11 year olds) ,the Deputy Head was their teacher.
She and I had been to Grammar school together.
She had warned them that if behaviour did not improve she was not prepared to organise a school trip for them .
Rather too late to get a good trip organised they did start to behave much better.
She wanted to reward their eleventh hour improvement but it was too late really to get everything in place, cioach ,entrance fees ,insurance etc.
So we decided to take them to the opposite of what they would have experienced had they behaved better.Somewhere I knew well.
Charter Street Mission was founded in what Friedrich Engels described as “ The worst slum in Europe” —- the inappropriately named “ Angel Meadow”.
Bordered by. Charter St,Danzig St,Ashley lane.
The disgusting back to back houses with no water,sanitation and three families to one tiny house .each occupying one floor and attic in rooms 8’by 10’ .
The Mission had a school, Sunday School and out workers.
That was the institution that brandrd the free clogs given at Christmas to the barefoot children at a party.
There is quite a museum there and the original classrooms .
We sat at the long benches wearing clogs ,pinafores and mob caps the girls .
The boys barefoot and no socks either.
Did £SD sums on slates, , wrote copperplate handwriting on slates,with double lines to control the height of letters such as a e i o u .
The teacher smacked the desk in front of any child who talked ,she was really grim !
Then we went to the place known as St,Michael’s Flags, ,a flagged area which was an area over the 40’000 dead from the great cholera outbreaks the 19th century and an extension of St Michael’s churchyard.
We played,whip and top, skipping , singly and “ jumping in “,marbles, hop scotch , etc.
Went back to the mission and returned clothes and clogs ,got a “ bun “ and a drink of milk , as children many years ago would have.The only food in the day for some.
Said prayers and sang aSunday School chorus , “ I am H A P P Y “ —- and the day was over after looking at original photographs of the time when ragged barefoot ,starving children were the scholars there.
Do you know, they were upset but voted it the best school trip ever !
So not sure if they were really deprived of a nice school trip because of their behaviour , but they had a fairish old lesson in history and sociology.
I wish I could post photographs ,the one they were most impressed by was of the poor little children ,haggard young mothers, all waiting outside Charter St Mission for some posh Duchess to open the Girls ‘ Refuge.
I can understand how proud you feel Erato about your discovery that your ancestors were very early settlers.
Whilst my mother’s family never went barefoot they did wear clogs and were very poor, good for them by comparison, but a bit sad for me ,I can’t be proud of descending from fairly recent ancestors ancestors who did go barefoot .
I keep hoping someone of mine had lived in a dreadful back to back house with no water,sanitation etc.
Inverted snobbery ;D
Viktoria.
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Nanna52 - my sister and I had black dolls. Don't know what happened to them, but maybe went to the school with the "baby dolls" The Enid Blyton books went there too.
I have quite a few of my old things My first doll - probably 73 years ago and also my teddy. Just wish I had my books now. All the Noddy books and a certain black felt toy - no longer aallowed to even say the word!
Dolls did not come ready dressed. Mum had to make all the clothes. A lot of this still during rationing - early 50s.
How would they cope today? answer - they wouldn't. They haven't a clue and moan if they don't get handouts for the latest of all that is available.
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And Victoria - my Mum had clogs!
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Real Lancashire lasses .
My lot had to polish theirs every evening ,even under the instep and wooden sole to make them waterproof .
Then all the children were washed for bed .
Then grandad would plait the girls ‘ hair as he did the tails of the horses he shod ,he worked as blacksmith for a funeral director .
In four strands ,Mum said if you did not screw your eyes shut it was hard to close them after ,he pulled so tight.
This would be from 1884, when he married,and the babies came along with great regularity .Twelve between 1884 and 1910.
The girls had black pinnies for school and white ones for Sundays.
Pinnies being like an overdress , open at the back and a frill on the shoulders.
On Sundays their hair was loose with a big white bow of ribbon.
Grandma must have been a wonderful woman.
Sadly I never met her.
Viktoria.
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During the war we had instructions to head for the cupboard under the stairs if the Klaxon Sirens sounded, which our dad considered the safest place to be. It was never used except that it permanently held two large rag dolls. One had long yellow woollen plaited hair, pink face, rosebud mouth, and blue dress and the other had black woollen curly hair, a round black smiley face and red striped overall trousers. I remember reading Milly Molly Mandy books and borrowing a couple of my cousins' annuals of "Oor Wullie" and "Rupert The Bear". The council built a small lending library in our area when I was about ten years old and I regularly had my nose in every book I could get hold of.
I don't think fuzzy felt was around when I was small. I do remember having a piece of felt that I drew the profile of a mouse on, then cut two pieces of that shape plus a long shape for the base, two ear shaped pieces and sewed and stuffed a few toy mice - you cant normally see their feet so attaching legs was no problem..
I learned to ride on an old small rusty gents bike, which initially was too large for me so that I had to stand on the kerb to put one foot on a pedal and then sling the other leg over the crossbar and off I went. I too went to dance class held in the kitchen of a house down the street, where the lady had two golden spaniels. I did so want a dog but no amount of pestering got me one. Looking back I think my brother must have grown enough to be able to ride my bike because my dad offered to buy me a new bike but I'd have to give up dancing - it was my choice. Until the day there was a knock on the front door and there was my dad with a new girl's two wheeler Rudge bicycle. Once everyone had a bicycle, my brother and I were kept busy for a few hours at the weekend washing, polishing and coating with a thin layer of grease to keep them looking "as new". I soon outgrew that bike which I see from a newspaper advert was sold for £7. I got to choose my next bike, which was a brightly coloured "Sun". It had straight handlebars that I sometimes turned upside down which gave the impression of a racing bike - plus I turned the back wheel round which meant that instead of using handlebar brakes I could stop by pedalling backwards. The bike that saw me through teen and adult years was a purple coloured Raleigh Sovereign sports cycle with all the extras. I spent many cycling hours feeling like the "bees knees" :D
I think Bayco must have been busy manufacturing their house construction sets because I too received one for my tenth birthday.
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Yes, we had to Vaseline anything chrome,whether it did any good I don’t know but I certainly did it to the chrome on the babies’ prams and pushchairs and their bikes.
I never had a bike until I was married and lived in Belgium ,then—— it was a motor scooter!
A Motobecane Mobilette !
But that is adult stuff .
I was allowed to ride my sister’s tricycle ,but it was never mine.
Viktoria,
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I had a scooter that I loved scooting around on. I have a great photo of me and my siblings where I'm glaring very meanly at my younger brother (who must be aged about 3) because he was standing on MY scooter. Don't remember ever cleaning or maintaining it in any way ...
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Just around our house was a concrete footpath - I had a wonderful trike and my brothers had pedal cars which we all rode around on these paths.
Our paddocks and roads were too hilly and rough for bikes and scooters when were bigger . . . . .
- but we loved using our cousins when we visited them - And their Pogo Stick was just wonderful! ;D
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As we got older we went out for hours travelling all over the suburb with our scooters. We sought out the longest and steepest hills, and had wonderful fun. We never had bikes, which my mother considered too dangerous. If only she had known what we got up to on the scooters!! ;)
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I forgot there was one blue child's scooter in the house that I did whiz around on along the tenfoot (back alley). I don't think pogo sticks were around when I was young. We didn't have stilts either, but we made our own by utilising either cocoa tins or the baby's empty food tins. Some long sturdy string poked through a couple of holes in the brims and firmly knotted made great alternatives. a slight stutter to start with when learning to keep the string between our hands and tin taut. Our youngest brother was born at the end of WWII and Santa granted him a brand new red toy motor car which our brother found at 2.00 oclock in the morning and immediately tried to ride down the stairs with a horrible crashing noise that awoke the whole household. As boys played games where one team were "goodies" and the other team were "baddies". boys presents seem to consist of potato guns, knives with retractable blade and longbow and arrows !! With warning noises from fathers of "Don't point it at anyone". The day Santa left a Meccano Set for a brother was the cue for brother to cry as father insisted on building a crane , thus leaving nothing for brother to make. My parents had a habit of buying us something they liked to play with, such as the skates Santa brought for myself and my brother , but had to wait hours whilst two giggling parents showed us how to skate with them.
I was 16 when I bought myself a blue £56.00 scooter paying about 5 shillings a week for several years. It's fastest speed was 56 mph. I did clean and service it myself and had to ask my dad what I was looking for when the instructions mentioned a "banjo bolt".
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;D The best sort of stilts Rena!!
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In Venezuela, we got dried milk in giant cans (from the Netherlands; it was really good!). I made milk can stilts for a couple of the neighbor boys, Rodolfo and his little brother Hernán. It started quite a trend; all the kids wanted stilts. Rodolfo was our first friend in the village. He was about seven or eight and, when we couldn't speak a word of Spanish, he'd come over and patiently talk to us. I learned a lot of Spanish from him.
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That brought back memories Erato, my Father made stilts for us, using National Dried Milk tins. All the kids had them eventually. When we older, he made wooden stilts for us.
Carol
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My stilts were made out of old paint tins.
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Nanna tin can stilts were one of the things in our ladybird book Toys and Games to make
I remember making them and a "guitar" out of cardboard box and rubber bands
I came across a copy of that book in a charity shop great memories
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I've always had a thing about buses, even so now having my OAP bus pass, leaving the car on the drive and let someone else drive these days. In the late 1950's early 1960's we used to go on day tips out also the odd evening mystery drive after tea at the weekends in summer. In brief !! my mother came from a small mining village called Clowne near Chesterfield in Derbyshire but later moved to Huddersfield Yorkshire to work as a maid, later met & married dad and raise our family there where i was born. Mums sibling brothers and sisters remained in Clowne, at Easter my uncles family visited us in Huddersfield (mainly for the annual fair in Huddersfield) and we visited his family in Clowne at Whit-suntide. (Now Spring bank holidays)
My elder brother was 6 years older than me, also my uncles 2 children a girl & a boy aged about the same as my brother, leaving me on my own to my cousins toy cupboard and one thing in his toy
excursion bus/coach and boy for 3 days solid I played with it ;D and finally was given it after my cousin grew up to a teddyboy in the Elvis / Cliff Richard Rock & Roll days.
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This......
https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1045540777/6-vintage-paper-dolls-with-lace-on
I have no idea why I loved them so much, they were just cardboard and paper with laces but they kept me entertained for hours.
Debra :)
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Paper dolls - one of my favourites for inside. All those lovely clothes to dress them in and make up stories about them :D
Mum's button box was another source of make believe :)
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Nanna52 - my sister and I had black dolls.
So did we and my mother still has them. She is creeping up on 90 and still dresses them, at the moment they are in gingham pinafores. Everyone who sees them is fascinated. They are Kaders like these.....
https://www.vintageghetto.co.uk/product/kader-ok-b35161-2-black-vintage-1960s-baby-doll/
Debra :)
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Dundee, mine is more like this.
https://www.vectis.co.uk/lot/pedigree-black-hard-plastic-walking-doll-1950s_511445
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Goodness me, she IS black! :D
Debra :)
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This......
https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1045540777/6-vintage-paper-dolls-with-lace-on
I have no idea why I loved them so much, they were just cardboard and paper with laces but they kept me entertained for hours.
Debra :)
Oh!! I'd forgotten paper dolls - I loved them. :D :D :D
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I too loved playing with my paper dolls, but I don't recognise the era that's shown on the link - all mine had hats!
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I still have my black doll who I named Dinah. She’s in the loft so I’d have to get her out to see who made her. She still says mama if you tip her up.
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Funnily enough, I had a "Dinah" too. My Mum named her.
TY
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Funnily enough, I had a "Dinah" too. My Mum named her.
TY
Perhaps my mum suggested it to me and I said yes lol. I had two other dolls , one called Marilyn and another called Sally . Marilyn had blonde hair and came from the Coop. Sally was one of those pedigree brand ones with no hair but a hairstyle carved into the plastic ( if you had one you’ll know what I mean).
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We had a bogey made by my older Brother, from old planks of wood and an orange box seat. The wheels were from an old pram, rope was attached to the axle of the front wheels for steering. I remember he charged his friends to borrow it for an hour. He was forever rummaging at the tip and would often come home with odd rollers skates and broken cycles amongst other things.
Carol
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We had them - or my brothers did. We call they billy-carts! Very popular!
Very rough riding down our paddocks! ;D ;D
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When grandkids were in Scouts they made Billy carts and at a camp with other groups they would have competitions and races. Son went once as a helper and said he could hear granddaughter screaming and laughing from afar. They took turns pushing and riding.
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I haven't heard them called that before, it must be an Aussie term.
Carol
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Well it probably is! ;D- - the only Bogeys we know are usually under Train carriages! ;)
Or the Bogey-man who might call! - you don't want him to! :o
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Where I live we have a Billy Cart Derby every year - fun for all :D
https://byron4kids.com.au/bangalow-billy-cart-derby/
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Well it probably is! ;D- - the only Bogeys we know are usually under Train carriages! ;)
Or the Bogey-man who might call! - you don't want him to! :o
In the forsaken place known as Lancashire bogeys live up noses - I will not digress into detailed descriptions ,that is why kids had a big hankie pinned to their jumpers !
Viktoria.
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Trolleys they're mostly known as in NZ, trolley derby etc. Ours made by dad and or by brother from recycled wood, boxes, wheels and a length of rope to steer the front wheels on axle. Probably could have done with a mountain goat to cart them back up the metal road or back paddock, using the modern acronym GOAT ... greatest of all time :D
A lot of outdoor play and homemade stuff ...
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Where I live we have a Billy Cart Derby every year - fun for all :D
https://byron4kids.com.au/bangalow-billy-cart-derby/
That looks great fun!
Carol
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Think that in my childhood they were just called "go-carts".
TY
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Well it probably is! ;D- - the only Bogeys we know are usually under Train carriages! ;)
Or the Bogey-man who might call! - you don't want him to! :o
In the forsaken place known as Lancashire bogeys live up noses - I will not digress into detailed descriptions ,that is why kids had a big hankie pinned to their jumpers !
Viktoria.
They certainly live up noses in Leicestershire too.
Dave ;D
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Think that in my childhood they were just called "go-carts".
TY
Go-Karts (sic) here suggest something small for young drivers (usually) with an engine of sorts! ;D
I love the way names mean different things in different countries! ;D ;D
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Think that in my childhood they were just called "go-carts".
TY
Go-Carts are different TY as they have pedals and a steering wheel I believe.
Carol
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Soap box cars were basically the same chassis :D they tend to be enclosed from what I have seen at a soap box derby and perhaps modified slightly from the original version.
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"Go carts" when I was a child - I was never allowed near one - had a sort of moveable pivot for the two front wheels, not really an axle, with rope on either side of the piece of wood they were attached beneath, to steer it with, but never had pedals
TY
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Same thing then, not the go kart type but a cart that goes :) ... yes a single pivot bolt middle of front board between wheels and guided by rope handle as you say.
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I never used one as it was a boys thing. I preferred my scooter anyway,
Carol
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Me and best buddy Mangu
Not the kind of rag doll that was banned !
Not sure where I got the name from .
I also had a black doll .my parents were trying to be progressive .
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Aw that's lovely photo, thanks for sharing.
Carol
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I never used one as it was a boys thing. I preferred my scooter anyway,
Carol
I was a bit of a tomboy at times, we lived rurally and my older brother only had sisters so we did a fair bit together as older sisters did their own thing. Not much paving around home for scooters, second hand bikes though, I was only one to get a brand new one for high school and ordered in as dad was unwell at the time. He helped us with recycling materials to make things like pole stilts and fix boards up in trees and a broomstick between rather high branches as a monkey bar and a rope swing over a gully, sleds for down the grassy hill etc. Happy catching tadpoles or trying to dam up the trickling bit of a creek ...
I had one of the dolls you mentioned CF, with the carved ponytail, small hole for ribbon and 2 for the shafts of the blue eyes to pop in, mum gave most of our few toys to older sister for her children born while I was still in teens. I still have another pedigree doll though with blonde hair, she came under the tree when I was 9 and younger sister got a slightly smaller one with black hair and an exciting and rather flash present for us at the time. By then we had 2 girls living a couple of paddocks away and the younger one of the two used to bring her pedigree dolls in a pram to our place and parents must have felt we were missing out. When I made my wedding dress 50 years ago, I used scraps to make her a dress as well and she was a bit for the bonnet of the car but sat in the back window ... don't see too much of that these days ! :P
Our girls quite liked dolls but so many playthings didn't need mine, she is in the company of an older celluloid doll from husband's family :)
Love the photo of you Bridget and your Mangu 8)
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That's a really lovely story Mare, thanks for sharing.
Carol