Memories of my Toys (first published 10/20/20

My first toy recollection comes from a picture from when I was about 3 or 4 years old.  The two toys in the picture are a toy Texaco Gas Truck and a model train set.  I am pretty sure I had gotten the Texaco truck from my cousin Leon, who is in the picture with me.  I’m not sure if the train was from my parents, Cousin Leon,  or someone else.  Another toy I remember as a young child was a top.  You pushed down from the top and it would spin with lights and even some sounds.  I also had a jack-in-the-box that drove my parents crazy after awhile.  

 

Another picture reminds me of more toys I had as a child.  When I was around 6 years old there was a massive holiday gift-giving between all of my uncles and aunts and cousins.  There is a picture of me with my “play doctor” set.

 

In terms of toys, I remember most from childhood (so I assume I liked them the most):  electric train set, tinker toys, and an erector set.  I built many model airplanes and some model boat, some myself and some with my dad and other friends.  We also built many kites using newspaper and balsa wood sticks.  Oh, another toy I remember is a pogo stick.  Seems that everyone on the street had one.  

 

I remember I loved bongos, drums, and any kind of musical instrument that made noise.  

 

Not quite a toy but my real passion when I was 9 and 10 years old was collecting Topps baseball cards.  I do not like gum so my dad would eat all the gum and I would get the cards.  He would buy the cards wholesale as he was buying candy for the miniature golf courses.  So that meant an entire case of cards at once though he would only allow me to open one or two packs each day.  As I recall, there were about ten cards (plus gum) in each pack.  All the kids in the neighborhood use to “flip them” on the street.  You could “flip”  ten fairly worthless cards to try and get one good card.  Flipping was basically throwing the baseball card like as a frisbee.  The one who threw it the furthest got all the cards being bet.  

 

Another passion was DC comic books.  Everyone in the neighborhood was hooked on them and traded them with each other.  We even collected bottles which we would exchange at the local store for comic books.  I had stacks and stacks.

 

I also loved crystal radio kits.  I made several crystal radios from kits and some were made without a kit.  I loved citizen band radios and trying to get stations from around the world.  And I had a telescope and loved everything space related.  I was a teenager during the space race and watched every flight on TV.  But I wouldn't really call the telescope a toy.

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