My childhood toys are long gone. Sorry, no original photos here but who would read this without some kind of photo...so I did a little "lifting."
I don't know if this was my favourite game, but it is certainly one I remember well. Long rainy afternoons when we were bored we pulled Monopoly out from the closet . . . and before long we were bored again! We did not know how to win it or end it. My favourite piece to move around the board was the little iron or the little boot. My favourite cards were "Get out of jail free" (so nice to hold a card that could get you out of deep trouble...I have sometimes wished for one in real life.
I did learn how to win the game eventually--buy everything (especially Boardwalk and Park Place) build quickly, and bring everyone to their knees. This is a game for children?
I had many sets of what I remember as mini-bricks, little plastic bricks that kept me busy for long hours. My sister at my side waiting for the finished product. They had little white plastic windows, real ones! I would lay a foundation with a floor plan, leave the back open so we could play in it, I learned to cut a piece of cardboard to make a second floor and continue building the walls, two and even three stories. Presto, we had a doll house! Then I would build the furniture. We had so much fun with this and yes, we had a lot of bricks! One of these doll houses would last a month or two then we would break it up and start over with an even BIGGER BETTER one! Just like real life huh?
When Barbie arrived we didn't have an awful lot of money for toys...gee, I was kind of lucky I even had a Barbie. The outfits were almost as expensive as the doll...at least that is what I remember my mother saying.
I discovered patterns, learned to cut them and sew what I thought were beautiful outfits. (probably quite primitive and sadly, or fortunately *s* , there are no photos!)
I would search my mom's sewing basket for bits of fluff, buttons, elastic and sometimes I even managed to get my hands on something wonderful, glittery, or shiney vinyl for a purse. I was always on the look out for materials to add to her beauty! I even applied makeup to her face with coloured pencils I had licked to make pasty.
I was never happier than when I had a sheet of clean paper, I used backs of sheets my dad brought home from the office...sometimes I was lucky to get a whole stack of paper clean on both sides. Heaven!!! I begged for colour pencils and my parents managed to keep me supplied mostly but sometimes I had to use plain lead pencil but I was happy with that too, I could draw for hours and hours and hours...it was like living in another world. As a teenager I discovered pastel oils and charcoal. Though my love of drawing continued and it became my claim to fame. Mum still has some of my drawings in frames.
One other thing I enjoyed as a young girl was those books of paper dolls. There was a doll, sometimes two, in cardboard and a few pages of clothes that you either cut out or were already prepunched so you could just pop them out....those ones were better. As I grew older I still liked them...I would put the doll behind a piece of plain white paper, sometimes holding it against the window, and draw my own clothes for her. As my drawing skills became better I drew my own dolls, models? and dressed them using my makeshift light box.
I sure wish I had some of those drawings to look back at.
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