# What Kind Of Toys Did You Have?



## Ina (Jul 29, 2014)

I was reading an article in National Geographic about children in this country that don't have enough to eat. I found it very disturbing that although there wasn't enough for these children to eat, most had plenty of toys.
Now I know my father, (and his church), was the exception from most parents in that he didn't think children needed toys at all. We didnt celebrate birthdays, Christmas, or other fun holidays. Religious holidays were for worship only. All children were taught chores instead of allowed to play.
But of course being children we found ways to play, even without store bought toys. We use whatever we could make into toys. Wooden blocks became cars, buildings, even toy people. 
I really didn't miss real toys, because you don't miss what you don't know about, until school age, when you see other children's toys. My only toys were books, which were free from the libraries.
When I had children, of course I wanted them to have what I didn't, but I also encouraged them to use their imaginations to come up with things to enjoy as toys.
What toys did you have growing up? How many of you depended on holidays and birthdays for toys? How many of you made your own toys? What do you think of all the stuff parents are buying for their children to entertain themselves? 
:magnify:


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## Meanderer (Jul 29, 2014)

Thinking about it, I grew up in a world where adults didn't have toys yet.  All the toys were for kids!  Sounds strange now, but that's how it was.  Baseball stuff, Tinker-toys (hold the plastic), tin gas stations, and Lincoln logs (made from real logs).  The boxes they came in lasted longer than today's toys do.  We played in a world of our own.


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## ClassicRockr (Jul 29, 2014)

When I was in grade school, I had a swing set to play on. I remember making a Machine Gun out of wood and playing a soldier in battle in WWII. I had a bicycle I rode to the neighbors homes. I remember attaching a Playing Card, with a clothes pin, on one of the spokes to make it sound like a motorcycle. 
In the beginning of my high school years, my step-parents bought me a Daisy Pump BB Gun (rifle). My step-dad told me "you can shoot all the sparrows you see b/c they crap (he said the other word) all over our farm machinery". All I had to do was look at our farm machinery in the barn and I could easy see why he told me that. My step-dad had a couple of firearms of his own, including an old Pellet pistol. 
I remember picking up the hobby, from my cousin, of building model cars. My cousin loved building model cars and had 3 long shelves full of them. I remember when my step-dad put up a tire swing on an oak tree. Boy was that fun! I had ice skates on would skate on the small pond next to our driveway. I remember when I got my first transistor radio for my 16 birthday. Boy, anybody would have thought I just won the Lottery.......LOL.


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## Mrs. Robinson (Jul 29, 2014)

We had a swing set-broke my arm falling off of the top of it when I was 5. We had several games,always had coloring books and crayons. And dolls-I loved to play with dolls. Not Barbies-I liked baby dolls. But we didn`t have near the toys the kids have now-or the amount that my own kids had. My kids all had bicycles but growing up,I didn`t. We lived right outside of San Francisco,right at the top of a hill with many other hills around. My mom was too afraid for us to ride. She was probably smart-those were the days of "coaster brakes",where if your chain fell off,you had no brakes. And I had books-I spent a LOT of my childhood at the library. It was a long walk from my house but I walked there at least twice a week.


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## kcvet (Jul 29, 2014)

for me it was the Lionel train. you put these little white pills down the stack and instant smoke


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## Falcon (Jul 29, 2014)

We were too poor to buy things to play with; so my Mom cut the pockets out of my pants.


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## ClassicRockr (Jul 29, 2014)

I remember, when wearing jeans while riding my bicycle, there were a couple of times my pants leg cuff got caught in the chain by the pedal. I was able to get it out, but one time I went down in the grass. Thank the Lord it was somewhat long grass or I'd been one hurtin' boy! Also remember going thru mud puddles and raising my legs/feet up as high in the air as I could get them. 
Oh........and no 10 Speed w/hand brakes! One speed for all riding and that was pretty difficult when going up a rather steep hill. A lot of "huffing and puffing".


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## SeaBreeze (Jul 29, 2014)

We didn't have too many toys, I played a lot with my brother making trains with the kitchen chairs, and tents out of sheets, cap guns and bow and arrow (suction cups).  I had a jack in the box, puzzles, etch a sketch, and coloring books.  We had bikes, roller skates, jump ropes, balls and stuff like that to play with.  I think kids nowadays are starting too young with the computer type toys, although there are pluses, those toys are sometimes used as baby sitters, and I think the child doesn't grow emotionally and socially because of it.


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## SifuPhil (Jul 29, 2014)

I had a rock.


Actually I was a spoiled suburb kid - I had toys given to me from the moment of my birth and they just kept accumulating. My earliest toys were stuffed animals (and the family cat, but we won't get into that here). My room was full of them and, unlike the present-day advice to parents, mine allowed me to have them in the bed with me when I was a wee tot.

Lincoln logs, Erector sets, that plastic beam-and-window skyscraper building set, blocks ... all the building toys.

Slot cars when I was a bit older ... tons of plastic model kits ... enough toy guns to make Rambo jealous ... 

I wouldn't exactly call them toys, but beginning around 8 years old I got into nature and science and began building my own lab in the basement, so I eventually accumulated microscopes, dissection kits, aquariums / terrariums and a large amount of Pyrex glassware to go with my chemistry sets.

Yep ... I was a gifted child.


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## kcvet (Jul 29, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> I had a rock.
> 
> 
> Actually I was a spoiled suburb kid - I had toys given to me from the moment of my birth and they just kept accumulating. My earliest toys were stuffed animals (and the family cat, but we won't get into that here). My room was full of them and, unlike the present-day advice to parents, mine allowed me to have them in the bed with me when I was a wee tot.
> ...



my dad and I built a lot of models to. I think today you get just about anything in lego


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## SifuPhil (Jul 29, 2014)

kcvet said:


> my dad and I built a lot of models to. I think today you get just about anything in lego



Yeah, but boy, have you seen the prices for some of the kits? Insane! 

I'm trying to remember ... I don't think I had Legos growing up ... maybe they weren't out yet, or I just don't remember having them. I know both of my boys had them - large plastic storage bins full of them.


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## ClassicRockr (Jul 29, 2014)

I have a model of the first Navy destroyer I went on in Sept 1968 in San Diego. It's partially built, but when it's done, it will be sitting on a shelf in our living room w/the other Navy/military stuff I have.


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## Lon (Jul 29, 2014)

I didn't have a lot of toys but the two I liked best was my Red Flyer Wagon & my Lincoln Log Set. This would have been Xmas of 1941. I painted the wagon yellow with a can of enamel that I found. The wagon did't dry until 1942 layful:


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## Falcon (Jul 29, 2014)

As a kid, I had some of the usual toys for every age I went through; TinkerToys, Erector Sets. Later chemistry

sets and microscopes. As an adult and the father of twin boys, I had fun "helping" them with THEIR toys.

After my Air Force service, I assembled kits of all the airplanes I flew as a pilot, B-26, A-26, AT-17s, BT-13s
and PT 19s  and a few others I flew afterwards as a civilian.  I still have my commercial pilots license,
but haven't used it lately.


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## kcvet (Jul 29, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> Yeah, but boy, have you seen the prices for some of the kits? Insane!
> 
> I'm trying to remember ... I don't think I had Legos growing up ... maybe they weren't out yet, or I just don't remember having them. I know both of my boys had them - large plastic storage bins full of them.



yes they are. I have one of the USS Missouri. 1:350 scale. it cost a lot. Japanese made to. so not that accurate. my dad and I always got Revell but their gone now. their's were made from the acutal builder's plans. and they do make them in lego


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## kcvet (Jul 29, 2014)

Im trying to find a model of the ship my dad served on. no luck. except for pre made. about 2300 bucks !!!!


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## kcvet (Jul 29, 2014)

ClassicRockr said:


> I have a model of the first Navy destroyer I went on in Sept 1968 in San Diego. It's partially built, but when it's done, it will be sitting on a shelf in our living room w/the other Navy/military stuff I have.



well hop to it we wanna see the pics


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## Falcon (Jul 29, 2014)

Lego is certainly NOT the best medium for scale models.  Revell  was my favorite scale model brand.

 I have a very close friend who owns a LARGE  (Anything you can think of)  model shop.

  If he doesn't stock it, it aint made by anybody !  I go ape in there.


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## Pappy (Jul 29, 2014)

Red wagon, peddle car, erector set, lots of toy cars, chemistry set, lots of model airplanes, ( balsa wood type ) , plaster of Paris models, BB gun, just some of the things I had growing up.  I never lacked for much even though none of my folks made a lot of money.


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## Mrs. Robinson (Jul 29, 2014)

Oh,that`s right. We did have Tinker Toys and a "Wagonbike"-a tricycle with an attached (one piece) Radio Flyer Wagon. Started out bright red,eventually was kind of a rusty orange lol.


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## SeaBreeze (Jul 29, 2014)

Forgot, I also liked to play with Pick Up Sticks.


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## Falcon (Jul 29, 2014)

I can remember my sister and her girlfriends sitting on the sidewalk playing "Jacks"

  Remember those ?


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## kcvet (Jul 29, 2014)

Falcon said:


> I can remember my sister and her girlfriends sitting on the sidewalk playing "Jacks"
> 
> Remember those ?



sure do. my sis had a passion for horses. she had a quarter horse named gold dust. he was a blue ribbon winner at the shows she went to. she let me ride him to cool him off. and yes she played jacks to


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## SeaBreeze (Jul 29, 2014)

I remember Jacks, and my brother playing Skelzies with bottle caps on the sidewalk.


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## Pappy (Jul 29, 2014)

I was briefly a millionaire until my mom threw out my 1940s comic books.


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## SeaBreeze (Jul 29, 2014)

If she only knew, huh Pappy. :sentimental:


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## Sassycakes (Jul 29, 2014)

I have to admit I was spoiled as a child. My Dad loved buying us toys. Christmas was also a very important Holiday in our family. Not only the toys but being with family. One Christmas I remember like it was yesterday,although it was over 50 yrs ago. My Grandmother had passed away in November so my Mom didn't want to decorate for the Holiday. My Dad felt very sad for me and my sister,so he went to the store and bought us each a Sassy Susie walking doll. I was 5 and my sister was 6. When we woke up Christmas morning we both had the dolls on the foot of our beds. All these years later my sister and I still have the dolls. When my Dad passed away and I didn't really want to celebrate the Holidays  I thought about how sad my children would be so I decided to decorate and then put the doll under the tree and I am still doing that every year.


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## Ina (Jul 29, 2014)

Sassy, Although they were sad times, they produced wonderful memories for you. :bowknot:


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## Warrigal (Jul 29, 2014)

I really can't remember too many of my toys. I wasn't interested in dolls from about the age of six but I do remember that my grandfather made me a wooden doll's cot and a doll's swing when I was about three. I also remember having a doll's pram which we used to give the dog rides in. She was happy to wear a bonnet as the price of the ride.

I remember some of the books I was given and the Davey Crockett repeating cap rifle I had to buy myself because no-one thought to give such things to little girls. Mostly we played games of imagination with the other kids in our street; cowboys and Indians, pirates, Tarzan etc and we just ran around all over the place re-enacting stories we had heard on radio or saw at the movies. We made our own props.

I didn't get my first bicycle until I was in high school but it was transport, not a toy. Earlier I did have a scooter with pump up tyres and a foot bake and my little sister had a dinky trike.

At school we played jacks, pick up sticks, skipped rope and played fly. I was hopeless at fly because my legs were too short.

After school we played hop scotch, rounders, countries and French cricket on the road using chalk and pebbles for the former and  fence palings and a tennis ball for the latter. We had no TV  but would go each Saturday either to the picture show or the municipal baths. Our days were always full.


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## Sassycakes (Jul 29, 2014)

Ina said:


> Sassy, Although they were sad times, they produced wonderful memories for you. :bowknot:



You are soo right Ina,I am blessed to have such wonderful memories of the past.


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## kcvet (Jul 29, 2014)

made your bike sound like a hot rod


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## Pappy (Jul 29, 2014)

Oh yea. For sure. Some of those old cards from the fifties would be worth a lot of cash today.


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## Ralphy1 (Jul 30, 2014)

Guns, guns, guns!  Cap guns, pellet guns, BB guns!  Oh, also, a slingshot...


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## ClassicRockr (Jul 30, 2014)

I apologize for the statement I posted about what my step-dad told me about "shooting sparrows", but I'm sure that most ex-farmers on this forum (if there are any) would know why he said that and why I understood. When a farmer, years ago and today, invests lots of money into farm equipment, "bird poop" all over it isn't the best thing to show off new farm equipment to friends. Come to think about it, my farm buddies had BB guns as well.


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