Bugsy Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Rummaging around in the loft yesterday (we still have un-opened boxes from eight years ago) and I found my old Meccano set, I'd had as a boy.I loved that stuff and it probably got me into engineering.What were your favourite toys from childhood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 We were too poor to have toys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Poor?Poor??We were far too destitute to even consider ourselves as poor!You were lucky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Well if my bike had been gold plated, it couldn't have more valuable to me, I loved it; I still love riding along on my pushbike even now, but unfortunately don't get to enough and came off and scared myself toooo making times riding my motorcyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 My father still has boxes and boxes of meccano he wouldn't let us play with his prewar meccano as we used to bend it. He did make us things like differential gearboxes to show us how they worked.I used to like playing with a massive set of wooden building blocks with grooves for marbles so you could build enormous gravity tracks,Later we started collecting scaletrix and my parents live in an old school so we had a massive assembly room and a ginormous track.Also had a very old big box kite that used to get us into loads of trouble.Rope while not strictly a toy gave many hours of enjoyment making slides between trees and we once put the rope up the top of the water tower sadly it wasn't long enough and it was a very steep drop we attached an ammo box and my brother very kindly let me sit at the front - we basically dropped near vertically forty feet and the box dug into the ground. My brother crushed me and I was severly winded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 My toys were not so different to Dog's. My mates and I used to join all our scaletrix track together in the garden and make a massive circuit, great fun.If you want to reminisce and are visiting London I can highly recommend a visit to the Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green (a 3 minute walk from the tube station). They have just about every toy you can imagine there, great fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Working in Bethnal Green the other day I saw that Quillan, Next time I'm there I will pop in, thanks.Almost forgot to add my answer, favorite toys...........................little girls [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Coeur de Lion Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Used to love the old matchbox cars. Had hundreds of them.May have been worth something now, but I have only one thing from my childhood now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 OK I'll fall for it . . . it is what exactly . . .?This thread does remind me of Dusty's Going Back brilliant lyrics - trouble is . . . .''There is no going back in life. There is no return. No second chance." — Daphne du MaurierI think Im goin backTo the thingsI learned so wellIn my youthI think Im returning toThose daysWhen I was young enoughTo know the truthNow there are no gamesTo only pass the timeNo more colouring booksNo christmas bells to chimeBut thinking youngAnd growing olderIs no sinAnd I can playThe game of life to winI can recall the timeWhen I wasnt ashamedTo reach out to a friendAnd now I think Ive gotA lot more thanA skipping rope to lendNow theres more to doThan watch my sailboat glideAnd everyday can beMy magic carpet rideAnd I can play hide and seek with my fearsAnd live my days instead of counting my yearsLet everyone debate the true realityId rather see the world the way it used to beA little bit of freedomsAll we lackSo catch me if you canIm goin back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWINKLE Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 INDOORSBattling Tops OperationBuckarooSpirographFuzzy FeltsOUTDOORSRoundersHop ScotchCharlys Angels [:$] (I was Kelly)Hide 'n' SeekRiding my Chipper while fantasising about a Chopper! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViVienne Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 indoors,books, and drawing/colouring I also had a bontempi organ and a stylophone.... outdoors....(too poor for a bike)skipping rope, chalk for hopscotch, tennis balls (used to play 2ball)roller skates and a football. All the kids in the street used to get together and build go karts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 [quote user="TWINKLE"]Riding my Chipper while fantasising about a Chopper![/quote]Ooh la la! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemonimo Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Just John Going Back is one of my all time favourite songs. However, it should not be listened to when depressed (even lightly) and with sharp knives in the house[:-))]When I was little I remember visiting my grandmother and was allowed to play with a very old miniature green grocers shop with miniature vegetable, miniature baskets, miniature everything. I think it ended up in the Bethnal Green Museum. It was a very girlie toy and my brother wasn't the slightest bit interested in it. He much preferred playing with his white mice that he bought for thruppence and kept in a birdcage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Cant remember toys much somebody was trying to bomb me at that time ..I had a sparking pistol I used to play cowboys and indians with ..It was years later I learned it was a gas lighter . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Dinky cars; Lego; Sindy's car -much more fun than the doll herself; a lovely wooden farm (which I still have) and the scale model Britains farm animals which went with it; and my bike.What a great subject for a thread, Bugs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 I had a Pedigree 'beauty skin' doll called Molly which I really loved and a Pedigree twin dolls pram in maroon. My uncle made me a dolls house too, with electric light and curtains my aunt had made... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 I had a Pedigree 'beauty skin' doll called Molly which I really loved and a Pedigree twin dolls pram in maroon. My uncle made me a dolls house with electric light and my aunt had made curtains for it - many happy hours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted March 7, 2010 Author Share Posted March 7, 2010 Does anyone else remember the scarcity of 'pram' wheels that were SO desperately needed in the making of a good soap-box buggy for tearing down the hills.They we're build without brakes [:-))] but mom always had a big box of plasters [:)]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 John, I love that too, such a message! Indoors: reading, playing with my beautiful precious doll Freda, reading, colouring, reading. In fact the public library was my second home (totally silent, with wooden panelling and the smell of polish!), and I borrowed an encyclopedia each week or so, heaved it home somehow - a long walk for a small girl! I also lapped up any homework we were set at primary school! I became a teacher. I also loved watching Dad mend shoes on his lasts (which meant shoes lasted long after we'd grown out of them!); the wonderful smell of leather is still one of my favourites!Outdoors: helping Dad in the garden, and eating delicious peas straight from the pod each spring (I still love gardening); hopscotch with an old polish tin; chuckstones with pebbles (also called 5-stones?); everyone playing out in the streets, big kids and little kids. Nobody got into real trouble (although there must have been some villains about somewhere), as everyone knew everyone else and would tell you off, and be straight round to tell your parents, when you'd be in trouble a second time! Nobody had bikes, nobody had the money even for old ones. I did try to ride one once, but fell off - oh the tears and the blood! My brother didn't live at home when I was born; he wrote to say he was pleased to have a baby sister, but he'd rather have a bike - I still pull his leg about that! I read the first few posts to my OH; he says he loved playing with Meccano too and other technical things, trying to make things out of wood. he became an engineer too.John, this is such a brilliant thread; I've loved reading all the posts, and you've taken me back in my head all those years - I could almost feel the gritty pavement under my knees as I slid the polish tin and set off hopping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Talk about going back, it's coming back to me now, that there wasn't too much money around though we didn't know it, and the bike Mater and Pater got for me was very second hand from an auction at the local police station of lost and found property, (remember when people used to hand things found to the police station? of course they were manned then[Www]). Wooden blocks had been screwed to the pedals to enable me to reach them, getting on and off was a bit hit and miss! It also had white paint on the front and back metal mudguards which I now understand to be a second world war practice giving away the vintage! [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 [quote user="woolybanana"]We were too poor to have toys![/quote]Same here[:)] But I had a secondhand bike, until it got stolen.Otherwise , like Gardengirl, the library if it was raining. If it wasn't raining, the beach, or sandunes, or the rocks and cliffs at Seaton Sluice.Or the staithes by the river. Making fires and cooking potatoes.I do remember good playground games such as string tiggy, what time is it Mr. Wolf? X's (tricks with tennis ball against wall.)I wonder if children play these games nowadays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Oh yes, I'd forgotten all the playground games like 'What time is it Mr Wolf?' and skipping games, games with balls against walls, tucking skirt (no trousers for girls then!) into pants and trying to do handstands against the wall -I never did manage that, but got plenty of plasters in the effort! One particular wall takes me back to the vegetable plot at primary school, which was nearby; lunchtimes and after school sessions with some of the teachers, planting and weeding the veg! ;o)And Seaton Sluice - such memories! My parents and most other parents in two or three streets paid in weekly to take us on a coach trip in the summer holidays for the day - that was the holiday really, apart from going down to Roker and Seaburn beaches on sunny days, but that was just on the bus, not a proper coach with a driver in uniform! ;o)Other outings were along the river, across the railway lines, out for hours on end with just bread and jam, just a couple of us children and no thought in anyone's mind about us not being safe.We had very little in money terms, but we seemed to have a lot of fun, and all the days were summer - not possible of course, and ice on the inside of my bedroom window has just popped in to my mind, and I shivered, sitting here on a sunny day!I didn't know that others lived different lives, which isn't possible for children now - so there was little envy amongst the children. Having got to Grammar school (we were the first from our primary school, and had photos taken in our school uniforms which hung in the school hall for many years!), I met up with others with decent uniforms, lots of 'things' and cars to collect them from school - I think I'd only ridden in one twice up to the age of about 15! Happy days to look back on, although in today's terms we'd be deprived! ;o) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 BaykoMinibrix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchie Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Dolls , dolls, and even more dolls... My two favourite ones were called " Jean Noël " ( a red haired boy with freckles ) and Stéphanie .I cried with happiness when I saw Stéphanie in her pram on Christmas day, waiting for me next to the Christmas tree, she was so beautiful, and looked like a baby , when you threw her up in the air she giggled, and you could give her baby bottles, fortunately she wore nappies !! [:)]I used to spend hours drawing , still love it, but I have no time for that.Outside, in the field , making " cabanes" with my neighbour and friend Véronique , also playing with boys, ( brother and his mates) , they were the cowboys, we were the Indians. As I had long black hair, I looked like one they said LOL LOLWe had the tepee , the costumes....I often ended up tied to the totem, and they danced around me [blink]... [:)]I also LOVED juggling with balls against a wall, you know, you can use two, three, four,... ( I know some will answer with irony to this one ...[:)]) And rope skipping, LOVED that too!!Reading, and dreaming ..... Lying in a field on my back, watching the clouds and looking at their shapes, trying to determine " this one looks like a Lion, this one looks like a heart... etc...)I was so lucky having a big house and a field to explore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Gardian, we have some Bayko in the loft, along with Hornby Dublo, which I'm told must be called that, as it's different from Hornby! Don't know why! ;o) We also have some old lead soldiers from just after WW2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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