Friday, March 26, 2010

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!






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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!

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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.


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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.

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

18 comments:

  1. I loved my Joey doll - he was from that show All In The Family. I wrote about it here a long time ago.

    http://www.fourthgradenothing.com/2007/02/send-him-back.html

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  2. I loved my Holly Hobbie doll. Wish I still had her. I think my daughter would love her too. The china set is really precious. It's so cool that you have all these playthings.

    I haven't seen a Mrs. Beasley doll in ages. She looks like she's still in good shape.

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  3. Vicky, what a fun post.. I coveted my neighbors Crissy doll, and do you remember Tiffany Taylor? I think her hair was either blond or black, depending on which way you twisted her scalp..lol...oh, and the Dawn dolls!

    My favorite toys back then were my Johnny West dolls and their horses, and breyer horses. I still have a Winnie the Pooh and a raggedy ann book end, perhaps I'll post.

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  4. Ally, welcome :) as much as I didn't always get the adult humor on All in the Family, I faithfully remember watching it! I never knew they made a Joey doll! Coming to check it out :)

    Kelly, I never had a Hollie Hobbie doll although I always wanted one :) Mrs. Beasley is holding her own!

    Karen, YES, I do remember Tiffany Taylor and I'd forgotten about Johnny West dolls :) I still have Raggedy Ann and my kids have 1 pooh bear. I would love to see you do a post!!

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  5. Such a fun post. Brought back many memories of my best loved toys:) I could do an entire post on some of my "treasures" from childhood. My favorites would have to be my fisher price "Happy Apple" (I can remember playing with it when I was Delaney's size!) and my own Susie doll. Susie and I loved to have tea together...lol!

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  6. I have a Mrs. B doll. Mine has some artwork by me in blue ink... That is really the only doll I ever liked. I was a lincoln log/lego type! LOL

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  7. Enjoyed your memories and photos ...I still have a Raggedy Ann doll that is many years old at this point ...

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  8. Oh yes - so many. Loved seeing your treasures.

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  9. we totally had the crissy doll...I think officially it was my older sister's doll until my little sister cut all of her off....and then nobody wanted it !

    I used to watch family affair and loved it !

    and I still have all my baby dolls....my mom made sure to save all that stuff for us, so I have done the same thing for my kids....

    happy weekend !

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  10. Oh my gosh I got so excited when I saw Mrs. Beasly....we had a Mrs B doll too, in fact I think it's still in my parents basement!

    And Crissy!!! I have a Crissy doll too. We certainly are from the same 60's era. I loved my Crissy. She still has her hair too.

    Did you have a Malibu barbie?

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  11. PS. My twin sister and I had one of those tea sets too...how cool is that?

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  12. This is great!! What a wonderful idea...and I'm so glad that you still have these toys (treasures...) Stirs up lots of fond memories, I"m sure.
    I kept toys that our son had...and our grandson is playing with them now. Our son is 34....and Garrett loves playing with "Daddy's" toys.
    What a great post, Vicky...I love it.

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  13. Kaleena, I would love to see a post about your childhood treasures! Don't even get me started on Fisher Price toys... I think they were my faves of all time :)

    Missy, my brother got into legos when he was older, and I know we had lincoln logs too. I can relate, my other favorite toy was a John Deer tractor!

    Susan, I have a mini Raggedy Ann and Andy, but I never had the bigger sized one.

    Bonnie, glad you liked them :)

    Beth, so what did your kids love when they were growing up? Or are they still too young to have fondness for them... sometimes it doesn't kick in till you have kids of your own.

    Lisa, Malibu barbie is a whole post in itself! And Ken, and Skipper and oh yes, I have them!! I have several tea sets, but this is the only one completely intact :)

    Jackie, it has to be especially rewarding to watch your grandchildren play with things your children played with! Yes, lots of memories come flooding back :)

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  14. Hi Vicky!!
    Great post,re-memorizing all of us about our golden era of childhood.
    I was born in 1959 and growing up in 1960's was so joyful and simple.
    We had home made dolls and toys of clothes and clay,made by my mother from left over scraps from clothes she made us.She would bring black clay from our village pond and would create lively camels,horses,donkeys bullock carts etc.for us.I also loved stuffed animal toys of our home production.

    I loved your golden treasure of magnificent toys esp.your toy china tea set.
    Toys always enhance cognitive behavior and stimulate creativity.

    Thank you Vicky for making us walk down memory lane into our childhood.The ways of life that seemed so normal then,are a treasure now.

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  15. Dr. Yadav, I am so glad you shared with me about your childhood treasures! The times were certainly much simpler and a lot can be said for hand made toys. I am fascinated at the idea of your village and what your childhood was like! I hope perhaps one day you will share me about it :) I enjoy your visits, thank you for coming over!

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  16. These are great! I have one I dressed up and keep in my living room I put a wig on her and fresh clothing over her original dress
    She is wearing my sons baby shoes.
    I still love her but she doesn;t walk very well anymore like she used to.

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  17. I remember the Crissy doll!! And I still have a tea set that my Grandmother bought me when I was a little girl...such fun memories!!! You have such wonderful ideas! This post brought back such fond memories and big smiles! Love you much! Janine XO

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  18. Couldn't stop giggling when I read the part about you dragging your doll by her hair. All the toys are in such good shape!

    I used to give my doll a haircut everytime I got my hair cut! My sister's doll went bald after a while :)

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