Favorite toy growing up

[Heather Shay]

I hope your weekend is refreshing and full of joy.

 

I wondered what was you favorite toy growing up. Maybe it was something you found under the Christmas tree. Maybe it was something you saved your allowance to buy. Maybe it wasn't something you wanted but over time came to love.

 

Mine is pretty weird. It is what my grandkids call stuffies. I had a monkey I called Skippy and he went everywhere I did including and especially on my bike. Poor Skippy wasn't the best made stuffy I had to sew his head back on several times but he meant a lot to me and for the life of me I don't know why.

[Cyndee]

Hi Heather, your "stuffies" sounds so cute and cuddly....

 

  For me my favorite toy , was a portable transistor radio, I could hear distant stations at night, and it would bring me music that was popular at the time. My Mom recognized this and scraped together (we were on food stamps at the time) enough money to buy me one Christmas a larger radio that included "Short Wave". "Marine Band", and FM !! It was my first FM radio, and I began to explore what was called "progressive radio" on FM in the late 60's, they played whole albums there, and the Dee Jay's were laid back, and talked in normal voices, not like AM disc jocks, where everything was sensationalized (BOSS radio). This FM radio listening expanded my musical horizons, at a time when I was teaching myself to play the guitar.

[Heather Shay]

They called it underground music when I first heard it. WABX in Detroit came in strong as I lived in Toledo ohio and they played all of Zeppelin II also Saucerful of Secrets by Pink Floyd and I discovered heaven.. In Toledo we had one station that just had evening programming and I listened every night before I fell asleep.i got my first stereo and listened to the weirdest song I could find....on the pink Floyd imma gamma album called...several species of small fury animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a picture.

[Cyndee]

56 minutes ago, Shay said:

They called it underground music when I first heard it.

 

You're right "underground" or "progressive" as it was called in LA were radio formats that were the precursor to what would become "AOR" formats later.

[Heather Shay]

My producer in Virginia used to be one of those "personalities" not the a Morning Zoo type but musical experiences and programed his show with wide range - you might hear Virgil Fox then Pink Floyd, the Frank Sinatra, thenIron Butterfly the The Paul Butterfield Blues Band or Siegel- schalls Bloes band. He referred to the formats as Free Form radio and that were the days before canned Clear Channel limited song selection fast food like formats  "everything sounded the same" radio.

[Heather Shay]

Probably the closest to it these days is Tom Petty Radio - channel 31 on SiriusXM.

[AmberM]

My pride & joy growing up was my collection of Legos. I loved how I could build anything in my imagination (at least after I built what the original set was first). I merged different universes, like Star Wars meets Pirate Ships (crazy stuff as a kid). I have always been into building and designing things, the Lego's was just the beginning.

[Heather Shay]

Excellent - now that I think about your previous posts it certainly makes sense. Build us a better world dear Amber ?

[DeeDee]

Ooh Amber, I had an old icecream tub filled with lego bits!

@Shay I guess my favourite toy must've been "Super Ted" because he is the only one I still have, sitting safely on my study shelf.

 

 

Named for a cartoon I loved watching growing up, the intro seems to strike an even deeper chord with me now though.

https://youtu.be/ouLJ-dP1Wps

x

[Heather Shay]

Oh how cute - although my Skippy was with me through college and my early work years he has disappeare. I think I'll look on eBay and see if there is anything close and show you if I do.

[Abi]

I had a stuffed black bear named Bear Bear. She made the mistake of putting mascara on with me and suddenly disappeared one day. I was like 5 or six maybe. I think of her every day since. Her spirit has not left me and never will.

[AmberM]

I think fondly of my army of stuffed animals that I had as well. It was a sad day when I was told I was no longer a little boy and had to grow up and donate them. I was only able to keep a couple of them, but the menagerie was gone.

[Elizabeth Star]

I don’t recall having a specific toy but I always had a stuffed animal of some kind with me. Even now, at work, I have one in my bag. 

[Heather Shay]

My Skippt sort of looked like this - he was an organ grinder type of stuffed monkey and I remember a red vest and his collar covered my young girlish attempts to sew the head back on - several times.

 

[VickySGV]

A very simple set of wood blocks that I refurbished for my grand children after my kids also had enjoyed them.  I liked them best for the ability to make them anything I could imagine.  They could not be locked together, but even sitting on the floor they were houses, towers, cars,  Imagination was the key.

[Heather Shay]

Unlocking the imagination and never letting imagination go makes life an adventure every day. I hope you get right down there and play with them - if you can.

[VickySGV]

38 minutes ago, Shay said:

I hope you get right down there and play with them - if you can.

 

One "tween (almost 12) and two teens now and they were on the other side of the continent when they were rug runners, but my gifts to them still are geared to imagination and discovery.  Last Xmas it was a group present of an electronic piano since all three love arts and music. (Expensive but I budgeted for the possibility.)  Oldest grandson is in a special Performing Arts High School studying piano and violin, the youngest (granddaughter) has been in two community playhouse productions just before COVID 19 locked them down. Middle grandson is into electronic surveillance spying (yes, I bought him the drone camera) as well as the music.  (Just a grandparent bragging.)

[Heather Shay]

absolutely - and for good reason - you'll have to convince them to take part in our digital music binges I'm working on with several ladies here. We certainly have a plethora of talent right here in River City....

[Dinaki]

I had weird tastes, I liked to collect:

 

tin soldiers

butterflies

matchbox cars

marionettes 

 

[KymmieL]

Not really one thing I can nail down. but had to have been my Hot Wheels. Or my Tonka toys. Like some of you I did have a kitty and Teddy that I slept with. named kitty and Teddy. very original.

 

Kymmie

[Heather Shay]

You are practical - call a Kitty a Kitty and a Teddy a Teddy...call Kymmie ... Kymmie... the obvious answer ?

[Cheyenne skye]

Not one specific thing but a couple things that come to mind:

Hot wheels/matchbox cars

Legos 

Erector set (sometimes mixed with the Legos)

Model railroads 

Star wars toys

And of course my stuffed mouse named Jerry. 

[Dartti Dare]

My coffee cans of little green army men.

[Carolyn Marie]

I had a couple of Tonka trucks that I loved.  One was a dump truck, the other was a fire engine.  It had an extendable ladder.  They lasted a long time. I wish I still had them.

 

Carolyn Marie

[JustineM]

Legos, lots and lots of Legos. My mom used to deliver Avon and we had 2 or 3 Avon boxes full of Legos. Me and my siblings would spends hours just building to our hearts content.