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Across the Fence:  Favorite Childhood Toy or Game  |
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Buttercup
True Blue Farmgirl
1433 Posts
Talitha
Vermont
USA
1433 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 14 2006 : 03:14:08 AM
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What was your favorite childhood toy or game and why? Would love to hear all about it!!
Hugz!!
"If we could maintain the wonder of childhood and at the same time grasp the wisdom of age, what wonder,what wisdom,what life would be ours" |
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Buttercup
True Blue Farmgirl
1433 Posts
Talitha
Vermont
USA
1433 Posts |
Posted - Aug 14 2006 : 03:21:07 AM
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My favorite childhood toy was not really a toy at all! It was actually a bar for adults to hang upsidedown on and stretch their backs out to help with back pain and trouble. I am not sure if they were called "PaL" bars or "PEL" bars, but for me as a child it was my monkey bar, swing set, fort, playhouse, look out tower, castle, and thinking spot!! It was often kept in my room or the family room and at a few homes outside. My family finally got rid of it when I turned 12 and I have never seen one sice, but I loved it!!
Can't wait to hear about yours!!
Hugz,
Talitha
"If we could maintain the wonder of childhood and at the same time grasp the wisdom of age, what wonder,what wisdom,what life would be ours" |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Aug 14 2006 : 05:29:54 AM
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A couple of my favorite things to do when I was little...
For a long time, it seemed (probably 3 or so years), my mother would send my little sister and I "fishing" in the small irrigation ditch across the street. She would tie some string onto the end of sticks for us and bend a bobby pin into a hook shape and send us with a little bag of cheddar cheese squares to put on the hooks and fish in the ditch with. We'd end up eating most of the cheese and never catching anything - as you might imagine using bobby pins!
She'd also punch holes in the top of coffee cans and around the edges and set them over candles for us out on the driveway - we could then "cook" little pieces of bacon that she'd keep in the refrigerator...
I just know there were more things that we loved to do... what fun to begin remembering!
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
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Bluewrenn
True Blue Farmgirl
1122 Posts
Erin
Texas
USA
1122 Posts |
Posted - Aug 14 2006 : 05:44:36 AM
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My favorite toys were the ones my mom and dad made for us the year when all our xmas gifts were homemade. He made me a "dancing man," a jointed wooden man who bounced on the end of a coat hanger wire; a box for screen printing; and a casting kit for making plaster casts of animal tracks. My sister Kris got homemade wooden puzzles and I forget what Dawn got. Mom made little rag dolls (a pair each) for all us girls. I think mine were Hansel and Gretel, Dawn's were Jack and Jill, and Kristin's were Raggedy Andy and Ann. And my grandmother made us each a larger rag doll as well...
The reason why that year's gifts stand out is that there were no electronic games or dolls that did special stuff to covet... (My sisters and I were so competitive about gifts) And then again, we knew they had worked for months on our gifts!
Since then, the best gifts are always the handmade ones.
My Homesteading Journal
http://toomyvara.livejournal.com
My craft journal
http://bluewrenn.livejournal.com |
Edited by - Bluewrenn on Aug 14 2006 05:48:02 AM |
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abbasgurl
True Blue Farmgirl
1262 Posts
Rhonda
USA
1262 Posts |
Posted - Aug 14 2006 : 11:41:39 PM
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When I was younger we were fortunate to live across from the schoolyard and were able to play on the swings, merry-go-round and slide. We also set up housekeeping in the hedge of lilac bushes at the edge of a neighbor's yard. Because there were no other girls around, I played with my older brother and the neighborhood boys. Their favorite thing to play was "war". I was always the nurse and cared for the "wounded". I suspect that it was because I always had a supply of candy "pills" that they allowed me to play!
We also went fishing a lot and my brother took me to check traps along the creek where he caught muskrat. He even "let" me help him skin the rats & prepare the pelts!
I had a girlie side too! I always loved "Barbie"...Friends of my parents had older daughters who passed all their things on to me. Sure wish I had all those original things now! The best was when my Mom surprised me with an entire handsewn Barbie wardrobe one Christmas! Mom had even sewed a leather coat! I played with Barbie until I was 14 and I STILL love dolls!
Rhonda
...and I will sing at the top of my lungs, and I will dance, even if I'm the only one! |
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Buttercup
True Blue Farmgirl
1433 Posts
Talitha
Vermont
USA
1433 Posts |
Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 01:38:54 AM
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Oh Rhonda, me too! I LOVE dolls and teddy bears...so much that I collect them!!  I had two older brothers so was a bit of a tomgirl I guess, but I sure did love my dolls and playing house!!
Hugz!
Talitha
"If we could maintain the wonder of childhood and at the same time grasp the wisdom of age, what wonder,what wisdom,what life would be ours" |
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blueroses
True Blue Farmgirl
1323 Posts
Debbie
in the Pandhandle of
Idaho
USA
1323 Posts |
Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 11:35:05 AM
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I used to love playing "house". Hmmm. Wonder why I'm a "farmgirl" now? I liked all the play cooking and setting my rooms up, etc.
I also loved to play hide and seek and tag at dusk with all my many cousins in the summer. We'd play til the lightning bugs came out and then all our moms would call us in.
Debbie
"You cannot find peace...by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolfe |
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happymama58
True Blue Farmgirl
1210 Posts
Patti
Missouri
USA
1210 Posts |
Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 6:33:10 PM
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My favorite game was "Sorry" because we played almost every Saturday night as a family. The ritual was that I got my bath and hair washed first because my hair was long, thick, and took forever to dry. Then my sister took her bath, etc. Then Mom would fix popcorn and we'd play Sorry, eat popcorn, and drink soda -- Dad, Mom, my sister, and I.
The soda was a big deal, too. We didn't drink soda all the time like kids do today. We may have had it on Friday, too, I don't remember, but I sure do remember those Saturday nights at the kitchen table playing Sorry.
Some people search for happiness; others create it.
http://happymama58.typepad.com/my_weblog/ |
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sunshine
True Blue Farmgirl
4877 Posts
Wendy
Utah
USA
4877 Posts |
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Linda Houston
True Blue Farmgirl
538 Posts
Linda
Lake Charles
Louisiana
USA
538 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2006 : 06:36:39 AM
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.My favorite game was outside in our barnyard. There were 3 boys( brother and 2 cousins) and of course, myself. We would hide in the ditch (dry) and watch for cars....when we would see one, we would take off runiing---we would hide from the cars in trees, ditch, in the horse pen, anywhere we could possiblely find. The weather was HOT and we all sweated and smelled to high heaven, but we were in bliss.....
Another one was at my grandmothers----she lived in a 2 story house on piers set on 2 acrea of land. When we would get togeher, the grandkids would play hide and seek. There were the most wonderful places to hide under her house,shrubs, trees and her garage....
I just realized my favoirte things are hiding----HMMMMMMMMM !!!!! |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2006 : 06:54:47 AM
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I was outside all the time and my brother and I played farm every day. I was the farmer..he was the worker. (can you tell I was the oldest) my sister usually didn't want to play. She was the one who constantly said ("I'm gonna tell!!!") Can you tell we didn't always do ONLY what we were supposed to do. We spent most of the time..especially in summer..at my grandparents house and I knew the property and the creek behind it like the back of my hand. My grandpa ("Pappy") kept ponies for us so we had "gymkanas" and "horse shows" and like that alot in the corral. We built a tree house one time and about got our hides tanned when fall came and the leaves fell off and there was this eyesore of a tree house in my grandma's tree in her backyard (an elm) but we used it for years and years.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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Amie C.
True Blue Farmgirl
2099 Posts
Finger Lakes Region
NY
2099 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2006 : 09:30:49 AM
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My sister and I played "farm" all the time! Sometimes we were the farmers, and we used toy animals. Other times, WE were the animals. I remember that we liked to have horse shows. I was very picky about imitating the correct gaits - I had a trot, canter, and gallop for both running and going on hands and knees - and we used our picnic benches as jumps.
Indoors, we set up elaborate farms with toy animals, dollhouses, and cardboard boxes for barns. Fortunately, both my parents and my grandparents had green carpets that made good pastureland! And the bits of hardwood floor that showed around the edges of the carpet were rivers and ponds.
We could have hours of fun with one of those plastic bags of tiny animals that you could get at Kmart or wherever for a few dollars. We were so serious about dividing them up, we used to take turns - now you choose your cows and I'll choose mine, now you take your chickens and I'll take mine. We tended to always choose the same animals each time, but there were a few that we fought over so you had to be strategic - sometimes she would pick the single dog in the package on her first turn, but then I would get the best horse, etc. Some of those animals are still at my grandparent's house, packed away. Now I want to go get them out!
Of course, I was always working on my parents to move out of the city and buy a farm so that we could do all these things for real. If you had told me when I was ten that I would still be living in the city as an adult, I think I would have lost my will to live. Oh, well, I haven't given up yet...and you can see, I think, why I like this site.
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2006 : 11:26:41 AM
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PAPER DOLLS .. leaped first to mind! and i loved playing outdoor games with all the neighborhood kids! xo
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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Amie C.
True Blue Farmgirl
2099 Posts
Finger Lakes Region
NY
2099 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2006 : 1:16:38 PM
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Anybody out there remember playing Pieman? It was a neighborhood game like tag or hide and seek. I don't remember who taught it to us, but all the kids on my block played it with us every summer. When I mention it to people, nobody else seems to have heard of it.
I'm talking about the game where you have one pieman, one customer, and any number of pies. The pies choose what kind of pie they are going to be, and they whisper it to the pieman. The customer comes along and says, "Do you have any strawberry/banana/apple pies today?" If the pieman knows that none of the pies have chosen that flavor, he says, "Sorry, that flew out the window." When the customer guesses the pie flavor you chose, you have to take off running for the goal (in our case it was the sycamore tree in our tree lawn, about 25 feet away) and get back to the starting point before the customer can catch you.
The best part of this game is coming up with pie flavors that are unusual but legitimate! We always allowed "mudpie". |
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Carolinagirl
True Blue Farmgirl
486 Posts
Kim
Rutherfordton
NC
USA
486 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2006 : 1:37:27 PM
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Definitely my rub-a-dub doll. Still have her. I played house with my dolls for hours. Now that I've gotten immersed in this doll making thing (thanks, frannie!), I'm getting to play dolls all over again. I'm collecting patterns to make, especially ones for play dolls...
Kim in NC |
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ali2583
True Blue Farmgirl
404 Posts
Alison
Winnipeg
Manitoba
Canada
404 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2006 : 3:08:29 PM
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Oooh, let's see. I always loved riding my bike, that was the number one thing I did as a child. I always loved my Barbies and all the little Barbie accessories that came with them. My doll house was also my prized possession, and I was always on the look out for new doll house furniture - yes, that's what I spent my hard-earned allowance on. Now, I spend my hard-earned salary on furniture for my real life doll house!
"God's gift to you is life. What you choose to do with that life is your gift to God" |
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Nancy Gartenman
True Blue Farmgirl
9093 Posts
Nancy
West Seneca
New York
USA
9093 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2006 : 3:12:10 PM
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MY FAVORITE, was my doll LUVY DOVEY, but she didn't live to long, my uncle Jack threw her in the river for target practice, grandma said never mind, you know he shoots everything in site, just this morning he shot my dishpan full of holes. So then I had to move on to othe favorites.
NANCY JO |
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sunshine
True Blue Farmgirl
4877 Posts
Wendy
Utah
USA
4877 Posts |
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Lovin Life
True Blue Farmgirl
103 Posts
Lisa
New Hampshire
103 Posts |
Posted - Aug 20 2006 : 7:08:51 PM
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Rhonda,
Your "war" games as a child brought back memories for me too. My best friend was the boy next door. He and his friend Bobby used to play war too, and I was the nurse. I always was kind of sweet on my friend, so whenever he was "wounded" I fussed over him for several minutes, while his friend I always sent right back into battle. he was always good to go after a quick check! Funny memories.
Other games we played in the neighborhood were Red Light green light, Statues, Mother May I and hide and go seek. Ahh, the days before video games were invented. I guess my favorite thing was doing gymnastics and riding my bike though.
I'd rather live my life with a "full plate" than an empty one. Life is not a rehearsal... eat up! |
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Across the Fence: Favorite Childhood Toy or Game |
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Favorite Childhood Toy or Game
