“There are toys for all ages”
September is the time of year when the house in the morning is colder than outside. The nights get chilly, and it takes a long time for the sun to circle and warm the house. I’m wearing a sweatshirt and slippers, my usual cold weather garb, because the house was only 64˚ when I woke up.
Saturday used to be a busy day for me, my errand day. I’d go hither and yon then cross off each errand when it was finished then sigh when all were finished. Saturday nights were for play: for being with friends, going to a movie or going out to eat. Saturday is now a whatever day, a do whatever I choose day.
I still have my View Master and several reels: some are old and some were bought from e-bay. Some of the older ones are TV shows I used to watch like The Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy. A couple are Christmas stories like The Littlest Angel. One of my favorites is of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. I also have President Eisenhower’s inauguration which is far duller than the coronation. Of the newer reels, the ones I bought, I have two of Ghana and one of Togo. I also Time Tunnel, a program I used to watch. It starred James Darren. Every now and then I pull out that old View Master and my reels. The colors on even the older cards are still bright, and I love how the people and the buildings look 3-D. I watched NESN and the Red Sox the last few nights, and they have a new camera which makes the ballplayers look just like the people on the View Master Reels. They are in 3-D with stop action. I figure that’s what got me thinking about my View Master.
Toys were simple when I was a kid. I loved Slinky and would sit and watch it go down the stairs then I’d walk back up, let it go and sit and watch it again. I had so many board games, Sorry being the all time favorite though Go to the Head of the Class was a close second. I had pans and dishes and a Ginny doll with lots of clothes and furniture. We made up stories when we played, and we were the voices for our toys. I loved to play jacks and always got a new set in my stocking. Finger-painting was great fun. I remember how the paint would stiffen and dry on my fingers. None of my toys moved unless I moved them. Imagination was the key.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: 50's toys, busy Saturday, chilly mornings, cold nights, errands, Ginny Doll, Slinky, Sorry and Go to the Head of the Class, sweatshirt and slippers, View Master, View Master reels
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September 7, 2013 at 1:01 pm
The View Master was an exciting gadget in the 1950s along with 3D movies. I remember playing with the slinky, board games and finger painting. My all time favorite toy as a kid were my Lionel electric trains. I don’t have those trains anymore but it would be interesting explaining to my son a steam engine.
My kids, who were born in the 1990s, were also enthralled with finger painting, slinky and tinker toys. My daughter loved her doll house with the little people and plastic furniture. Both my kids were enthralled with my vinyl record collection and they called them “black CDs” for several years. My son loved to play on my father’s Hermes portable manual typewriter. He called it the ancient word processor 🙂 I would love to find a new ribbon for the thing.
My 1980s Sony Walkman, was my first electronic gadget that I couldn’t live without. It was just a little larger than a cassette tape and could fit in your shirt pocket. Later I upgraded to a portable CD player, later an iPod Touch and now an iPad.
Times may change but good toys don’t seem to ever go out of style. Imagine how many Monopoly board games are sold annually. I think they finally got rid of the iron board piece since kids today have no idea what an iron is used for 🙂
September 7, 2013 at 1:16 pm
Bob,
I actually have a train set but it is HO scale. I always wanted one and a long time back a friend gave me one for Christmas.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hermes-Portable-Typewriter-Ribbon-Black-and-Red-Ink-/120693413963
E-Bay has everything!
I think my first portable radio is still my favorite. I couldn’t believe I could take it anywhere I wanted and hear music. I loved my Sony Walkman as well. I listened to it grocery shopping, and it made even that chore almost bearable.
They did change the Monopoly pieces, and you’re right about irons. I have only one friend who still irons. I have an iron which works just fine. It was a house warming gift in 1977.
We still play Sorry. It takes on all different dimensions and really bad language when adults play.
September 7, 2013 at 9:09 pm
Thanks for the link. My kids have out grown the typewriter and I can’t use it because it doesn’t have a built in spell/grammar checker. I do have a 1985 Macintosh Plus that still works and boots up into System 4.0 that sits in my closet. It has a spell checker that works with Apple’s first word processing program, MacWrite. Unfortunately, the only way to get data out of it is via a floppy disc. I don’t need to buy a USB floppy disc drive for my current iMac 🙂
September 8, 2013 at 10:30 am
Bob,
When things become obsolete, they really do. No parts are ever available. I still have the typewriter I got as a high school graduation program. I keep it for the sake of nostalgia!
September 7, 2013 at 1:04 pm
Hi Kat,
I still have a full-sized metal Slinky. It was my stress buster when I was a manager. If my team heard the slinky noise coming from my cube, they knew they should approach with caution. 🙂 Not really. I was always nice to my team. But sometimes I was a bit short with answers.
Monopoly and Yahtzee were my favorite board games. I didn’t play with dolls much as there weren’t any girls my age in the neighborhood and my brothers tended to rip the heads off my dolls anyway.
We didn’t spend a lot of time playing with toys other than baseball bats, balls, bikes, skates etc. I wouldn’t consider those as toys. They are the tools of childhood.
My house was colder than outside, too, this morning. The porch warms up fast, though, so I sat out there until I got hot.
Enjoy the rest of the day.
September 7, 2013 at 1:20 pm
Hi Caryn,
I too still have a metal Slinky. In my AP office I had plastic ones which the kids used to calm down. They’d take one and it would slinky from one hand to another.
I could only take Monopoly for so long before I got bored. It was a great game for camping vacations when there was little to do.
I wasn’t much for dolls either after I was around 9. I found them boring. Mean brothers!
Bikes were a necessity for every kid. They took us far away so we could explore. I rode mine all the time, even to school in the spring and fall.
Right now I’m watching the Sox play the Yanks-I love baseball.
Have a great Saturday!
September 7, 2013 at 2:05 pm
I never got a View Master but my cosins had one and I loved to watch those reels 🙂
Most of my toys were hand me downs from older kids where I lived, lots of Dinky toys cars and books of course. But I also had my model railroad and a car racing track. In especially loved my model railroad so much in fact that I bought a new one lastb year 🙂 I don’t know what it is but I love tyrains and it’s sort oif soothing to see that tiny train driving around on those tracks 🙂
Summer warm here today and it will be like that tomorrow too, can’t say I don’t like it 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
September 7, 2013 at 2:50 pm
Christer,
View Master reels are fun to look at.
I love to ride on trains, sleep on trains and play with train sets. I find trains so much fun. I was lucky that Ghana had trains in my day, and I used to ride them a lot, so much better than the hot, cramped buses. I have ridden trains all over Europe.
I made lots of house models for my train set, and I love the cars which did stuff.
Warm here now, but chilly tonight.
September 7, 2013 at 11:47 pm
My dad had the Lionel trains in my house. He had a huge table that was set up with two lines, landscaping, houses and all that kind of thing.
But it was in the cellar. A cellar that had critters.
When they pulled down the old cider mill on the next street all the critters that live in it moved into the surrounding neighborhood.
One morning I went down cellar and there was a rat next to the Plainview Station.
I guess he was waiting for the next train out of town. 🙂
September 8, 2013 at 10:29 am
Caryn,
Knowing rodents, I think he was waiting to pick up his relatives arriving on the next train!
It was chilly here to last night, but I had my bedroom window open and sleeping was wonderful in that cool air.
September 7, 2013 at 5:56 pm
I love my old teddy bear. I’ve got him when I was 2 month old. Meanwhile he is a little bit shaggy, but I am too. We will grow old together 🙂
(Busy weekend and busy next week. Be sure I’ll listen, read and enjoy
your posts. Just too tired to make reasonable comments…)
September 7, 2013 at 6:51 pm
Birgit,
That is so cool to have something from when you were so young. I do have a chair my father’s uncle made for me when I was two, but it doesn’t do for cuddling.
Thanks for hanging in with me even when you’re so tired!
September 30, 2013 at 5:18 pm
I still remember the View Master. I sued to take turns with my brothers and sisters watching the reel. You are right, the toys back then required you to use your imagination for them to come to life. I miss those days.
September 30, 2013 at 7:25 pm
Randall,
I try and buy the kids in my family toys which depend upon the imagination. They seem to love them and play with them often. The toys never get boring as they aren’t the same every time. They are whatever the boys imagine.