Weekend Assignment #360: Old Toy

Weekend Assignment #360: Toy Show
Do you have any old toys or dolls from your childhood, either the originals or replacements purchased as an adult? If so, tell us about them.

Extra Credit: Is there a particular toy from your childhood that you especially remember as a favorite?

Yes, I'm late in answering, but give me a break. Last weekend I worked six days, followed by the toy show on Sunday, followed by my usual Sunday errands - well, some of them. Then came the new work week, complete with my 40 miles each way commute. Yesterday I worked at both jobs, followed by Ash Wednesday mass in the evening. Then today was my birthday, which included the usual commute, an eight-hour work day, and then coming home to discover my monitor had mysteriously gone dark. A trip to Staples just as mysteriously resulted in it working again, but now I've got a hub that isn't functioning. Arrgh. Then was the birthday dinner at Kon Tiki, and here I am. Point is, I'm a busy beaver these days, and still not over my bronchitis. Is it any wonder I'm a bit distracted?

So, anyway.

I do have exactly one toy that I owned when I was six. You've seen him before, and I'm not exactly sure where he is at the moment. But here's a file photo:

This is Trophy. He was a present from my godmother, Joan F., after I was formally baptized in the Catholic church at the age of six. Trophy arrived on a red plush pillow (not this one), which to my childish eyes made him look like some kind of a trophy.

I'm not sure Trophy was my favorite toy, but he's an integral part of my childhood. One time, a dog got hold of him and tore off part of one leg, but an aunt of mine sewed him back together. That was when I was staying with my dad's family in New Jersey. while my mom was in the hospital with polio-encephalitis. On later occasions I repaired him myself, restuffing him with tissues and I think Elmer's Glue.

Furthermore, Trophy was the first of a string of stuffed animals that I collected and hung onto until high school.  I remember the list, in order of acquisition: Trophy, Snoopy, Percy, Timmy, Toothy, Eeyore/Yonker, Pooh, Timothy. Snoopy was not the Peanuts dog, but a different Snoopy dog. Percy was a panda, Timmy a tiger. Toothy was, I insisted, a giroo (giraffe/kangaroo cross), not a green brontosaurus with leopard spots. Pooh I made myself out of an old coat lining. Timothy was a bear I bought myself once when I was a bit depressed.

I gave most of my stuffed animals to a younger next door neighbor during high school. His alcoholic mother promptly threw them away. Shame. I would gladly have taken them back. Then again, my dad would probably have innocently sold them at the infamous yard sale while I was out of town, the year of the divorce. But I still have Trophy, and I think Snoopy and Toothy. Somewhere.

Most of my other toys these days are replacements. I have at least one of every Barbie-related doll I had as a child, plus some that friends had.  I have a Bunson Bernie Kiddle, like the one my dad gave me circa 1965, and a Jan doll like the one my mom bought me in 1963. I even have a Fisher-Price toy radio that plays "Jack and Jill," like the one I had when I was four; and two Chatty Baby dolls like the one my parents gave me one Christmas instead of the Chatty Cathy I'd asked for.

It's silly, I know, but I enjoy getting back some of these well-remembered toys, even if they aren't the originals. John does the same. That's one reason we go to the annual toy show held every March in Tucson. Our collections are advanced enough these days that we seldom find anything that we owned once, want to own again, and haven't already gotten. But at Sunday's toy show I did spend $5 on a Hot Wheels case, not because I had one originally (I didn't), but to display my small collection of replacement Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.

And John? He bought a dollar's worth of vintage bottle caps, and a couple of old comic books.

Karen