GROWING UP ME -

Friday, January 1, 2010

8:52 PM

Random Toys

Some more of the random "boy" toys I had when I was growing up. I had TONS of different cars and motorcycles because that's what my friend, Jeff liked. Had my first best friend been a girl, I probably wouldn't have chosen to play with cars, army supplies, b.b. guns, etc. but for the most part, I had a lot of fun with these things, just the same. I especially liked playing with cars. There were so many from which to choose back then. There were lots of muscle cars, family station wagons, VW buses, and motorcycles. I guess I liked playing with them because they were pretty and I could pretend that I was really driving them. Every kid dreams of being able to get behind the wheel of a slick-looking car.

What I liked about some of the army toys was that they allowed me to carry cold water, candy, etc. with me. Today kids have every kind of backpack and clever container they could ever dream of but that wasn't the case back then. There was no such thing as bottled water, etc. When we got thirsty while out playing in the 100+ degree summer weather, we either had to go all the way home or we had to ride our bikes up to the park water fountain for a replenishing drink. I wouldn't exactly call that a hardship so I'm not complaining. I'm just saying that times and circumstances were different. So at the age of 4 or 5, I thought being able to carry my own cold water and snack with me while out playing was a very big deal. I didn't carry snacks very often, but I carried water quite a lot because we played long and hard. We needed lots of water.

*Related note: The park water fountain was a great place for kids to congregate during the heat of the summer. If we got super hot while running around playing, we could not only get a cool drink there, (and enjoy a moment in the shade thanks to a huge tree that shielded the fountain from direct sunlight) but we could also douse ourselves from head to toe with the cold water. The water shot up beyond the mouthpiece in a full, thick stream, which was awesome for kids wanting to shower in the fountain. lol We weren't ever wearing expensive, name-brand leather sneakers back then. Our shoes were always made of canvas and easily washable. We also wore casual, comfy play clothes because back then, no one really worried about impressing anyone with name-brand clothing. I had a lot of cute summer clothes but none of them were expensive or fussy. If I got them dirty, my mom could just throw them in the washing machine and count upon them to come out looking good as new (at least until I finally wore them out wearing them so often, lol). So if on a whim, we decided to cool down by sticking our heads and everything else into the nice, cool stream of water that came out of the drinking fountain, then that's just what we did and nobody minded at all. We would just play some more until we dried naturally in the sun and wind and then, depending on how hot we were, maybe do it all over again.

See what I mean? Being blessed with the opportunity to grow up in the 60's/early 70's was really a precious thing. Life was indescribably innocent back then and childhood was really childhood. Certainly we all had problems. Not everything was rainbows and fairytales. In our house, we knew some extremely dark and painful times. Even so, people and circumstances were such that the good times were really, really good. We knew a way of life that future generations will never see anywhere except on television and in the movies and even those opportunities are only available to them via vintage programming. I wish so much that Prince Kit and I could take our kids with us back to the days of our 60's childhood, just for a week or even a day, just so they could see how fun it was to be a carefree kid who could roam the neighborhoods with wild, innocent abandon. But then again, I guess it's better that they never fully know just how much fun they are really missing.