Every Christmas when I set up my elephant tree I remember the small grey and red stuffed elephant I had as a child. Some of my earliest memories were of taking it to my mother to mend when a newly exposed tuft of stuffing showed itself through worn seams. Finally, there was little left to mend. It was my Velveteen Elephant, so to speak.
As an adult, I saw a similar stuffed elephant at a garage sale. It brought the memories flooding back of my special toy. The tears ran down my cheeks. I collected unique elephants from that point on until I let them all go in favor of just having elephant ornaments on a Christmas tree. I've posted a few of my favorites.
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My two daughters had a similar strong reaction to some childhood toys in a discussion during Thanksgiving dinner. I had recently found a little red loom at a garage sale that came with bags of stretch loops for making pot holders. My girls spent hours making them for Christmas presents when they were little. They were beside themselves when I gave it to my granddaughter for her birthday. I wonder if they all have made my Christmas pot holders yet?
The girls also talked about Cabbage Patch dolls, and how they had to settle for a homemade one by me, because I couldn't afford to get them the real deal back then. They were hard to get; availability, fighting over them in stores with women grabbing to get the few that came in, and the ridiculous price of 60 dollars. That was in the young children age of our marriage where, after the bills were paid, we were lucky to have 60-80 dollars to last for two weeks until the next payday. There was hardly a choice between dolls or food on the table.
Anyway, those are a few of my stories about my, and my children's nostalgic toys.
What toys do you remember having as a young child?
2 comments:
I had a white terry cloth bunny with red, yellow, and blue dots. I loved that bunny...Peter Rabbit. One day mom took him and said she was going to wash him. I never saw him again.
Boy, that made me mad! A friend an I were talking about childhood toys many years later--she made me a new bunny! :-D
You know I used to collect elephants, turtles, and pigs. NO more collections here!
Connie, this is so sweet. I loved those small pot-holder looms too! AND my grandmother made a home-made Cabbage Patch doll for my sisters and I for the very same reason! We had to share it, and my baby sister still has it.
We had a small 900 sq ft home with 6 kids. No room for much toys, so most of what we got was for outdoors - except the rare Barbie doll. We would stack end tables up for a two-story doll house and make shoebox furniture. We also sewed our own clothes. I still have a few my great-grandmother helped me make.
A couple years ago, we got rid of all my daughter's store-bought Barbie house and furniture, because she PREFERS to make her own!
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