Nostalgia...

I was watching James May's programme about his sisters' toys at the weekend, and it got me thinking about some of my childhood favourites....

This horror was called Jacko the Monkey .... My dad brought me mine from America ( he was in the Merchant Navy) and it was probably the forerunner of this one. He was a lumberjack monkey and wore a check shirt, dungarees and big boots. I called him Tom Dooley and I think he was almost as big as me. His fate? My cousin hung him on the washing line and his ear came off!

I had a much nicer Teddy Bear, who had a hard plastic nose and a growl in his tummy but he stayed safe in my bed.

                               

Any little girl would love a pram like this .... but I didn't have twin dolls ..... so it just never felt right.

A splendid walking doll .... mine was blonde and called Diana. She actually walked towards you if you held her hands. She was also responsible for knocking out one of my teeth.   

                       I also had a few dolls that looked like this .... but they weren't twins!!!!

Forget Barbie or Tressy ... Sindy was the best. I loved this doll. We couldn't afford the range of shop bought clothes for her, but she had a huge wardrobe of handknitted outfits .... made by my mum, my grandma and eventually me. Sadly her head  fell off, and she spent the rest of her days wearing a surgical collar! I also had a beautiful teenage doll called Kitty, who came from Italy. She had the most amazing glossy dark hair in a pony tail!

Just the thing for arty creative types ... SPIROMATIC ... you squeezed paint onto the spinning paper and got amazingly messy. This was great until the paint ran out!

Mouse Trap was the must have toy when I was 10. I was thrilled when I got this .... but everyone of my friends got it too ... and we got fed up playing it. It also took ages to set up and never actually trapped the mouse. It was very exciting though.

Looking back, we didn't have as many toys as today's children, so the few we did have, we treasured. Genarally though, I think I was always happiest when I was making something. I loved the dress up paper doll sets and would make my own clothes for them. I would spend hours just drawing and colouring. I loved knitting, and making chains with the Knitting Dolly, and making woolly pompoms. I tried my hand at crochet, but wasn't very good at sewing. I always wanted to make the things off  Blue Peter, but we never had the right glue or the right paint or the sticky back plastic. I still had a go at them though using sellotape and cereal packets. I suppose I drove my poor mum mad.

Best of all, I loved to read ... I never had my nose out of a book. Miss Blyton and Ladybird books kept me happily entertained for years!!!

What memories do you have of your childhood favourites?