Vintage...

I am trying to clear the way for Spring to come and stay awhile. I thought if I stripped the house of the last shreds of winter, spring may start working her magic on the dormant and still frozen grass, as well as the brown and dingy look of the bushes and trees. So I've vacuumed and scrubbed up buckets of gravel and grit from the floors. I've been laundering winter coats and hats and making room for them in closets downstairs. But first, I had to rearrange some childhood treasures.

I often wonder the types of things the boys will remember from their childhood and adopt as their cherished treasures. Will it be the lawnmowers that Nolan has pushed around our yards ever since he could walk? The hotwheels that Colton still plays with, strewn about on the floor of his room? Or will it be one of the many items the boys  have come to collect, like Bukugan, or Pokemon perhaps? I wonder...

My mother threatened to throw or give away some of the toys I grew up with, for years. I begged her to hang on to them hoping to have room for them one day. I've pared the lot down to a few things and took a few moments to remember yesterday, sorting through my childhood.




Mrs. Beasley, from the tv show Family Affair, has become a collectible doll.  I've seen her listed for as much as 250.00 dollars in pristine condition.  However, mine is severely loved on.  She threw out her glasses, and the little collar around her neck.  She is dingy in places, and has smudges of black marker left over from my brother Lee.  She doesn't talk very clearly anymore... but at her age, I'm just happy she is still sitting upright!

The Crissy doll, with hair that grew from the top of her head. She also came with twirler beads that plugged into the hole on top of her head and could be wound around her hair. My Crissy doll is a bit bedraggled these days. Her hair was rather tortured by my 7 year-old-self. The little brushes and combs that came with Crissy, were awkward at best and worked mostly by yanking them through the hair... poor Crissy.  I must say, she still has the most amazing eyelashes to this day, however!





Susie was my very first doll. She is a Horsman doll from the late 1960's.  Below is a picture of me holding Susie while my Dad held my brother new baby brother, Lee. As you can see I was a bit misguided in wanting to drag her around by the top of her hair, and it shows.

So unbeknownst to me, my mother while I was at college, for Christmas one year, had Susie refurbished.  She got new hair and new clothes and my dad even made a little wooden chair for her.  She resided in my bedroom till the boys took a very rough and tumble interest in her and she is now retired to my closet.  Poor Susie has some fairly wild adventures to tell.






This is nothing more than a dimestore, (Ben Franklin) purchased tea set.  But I love how perfectly intact it is.  I have the entire set without a scratch or chip out of it.









So how about you? Do you recall any of these? Do you have a special memory of a toy you loved?