General Chat

My dad and brother combined to build a doll house for me about 1944, they even installed little tiny bulbs and wired them to a battery so I could have "electric light". I also had a farm yard that they might have built.

I was told when I was 12 that I was too old t keep my toys and I had to pass them down to my brother's children ......... that included my already threadbare bear that Dad had managed to buy in London in early 1940. :-(


In the basement here, we have OH's Hornby Dublo train ............. he had it sent over here when his parents were moving house and, by some miracle, they had not got rid of it. When our daughter was about 10, he got a sheet of plywood, attached the rails to that, got a transformer, and she used to play trains with it.

We also have his Meccano set, which is a combination of the sets he was given in the early 1940s and the ones that his father had been given in the 1920s. My daughter loved that set, built all kinds of very complicated operating things with it.


Sindy was my daughter's era .............. she had 3 or 4 dolls, several sets of "furniture", OH built a doll house sized down to exact measurements, and she built furniture, fireplaces, etc out of wood cotton reels, cardboard, etc.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised when she became an architect :-D

Rollo. Ahh, boys toys.

Hornby in the attic. Duchess of Athol (Maroon), Nigel Gresley (Blue) and a 2-6-4 (or maybe it's a 4-6-2?) tank engine (Black).

Jetex engines. I guess that every boy owning one would have lit an exposed fuel pellet just to see what happened. Fast fizz/burn yes. But not explosive?

Airfix Avro Vulcan needed two Jetex though never flew far. But building the plane - the glue and the dope!! What would HSE think today?

Milbro alloy catapult, with a yard of 1/4" rubber.

Went to the local (Woolwich) 'cop shop' every year to pay for my licence to "carry and use a gun".

Last but not least. Fireworks over the counter. And make-your-own gunpowder (salt petre and sulfur from the local oil shop, plus some soot from the chimney)

Some great choices here and fond memories of favourites.

Most of our games when young involved imagination using a few 'props'.
My sister and I had a hand-made box, which opened up to become 'The Village Stores'. With cash register and weighing scales and little jars of miniature sweets, we spent hours playing and serving family customers.

When I was a bit older, I had a Viewmaster. I had new reels bought for birthdays and loved 'visiting' other countries through the photos I saw.
I still have all the films and my bakolite viewer.

Also here somewhere is my teddy. He was made with sheepskin and apparently spent a lot of time over my shoulder, as I copied my mother winding my younger sister.
Poor Ted consequently got rubbed a bit bare on his back.

For Christmas when I was nine my Aunty bought me a doll.
My best friend's Mum bought the same doll for her, but with blonde hair.
We used to laugh about it as I was the blonde and she was the brunette.

I still have her. I recently got her out of a cupboard and bought her new clothes :-D

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/keepsafe/asset/details/55849885

I still have my 60yr or so Big Ted. He looks a bit bald now but still as handsome as he was when I first had him. He has lost his Growl though :-(....
Fuzzy felts are something I loved as a child and enjoyed them again when I had my children. Bunty comic with the cut out girl and clothes to dress her with the tabs that folded over the shoulders and sides :-D :-D

I loved my doll's pram, with proper canopysecond hand (toys short in war time) and my beautiful little China tea set that Mum queued up for, which daughter has in her attic. Dad made a little round table and chair and a dresser for the tea set. He also made a huge dolls house with lots of rooms and lighting. And also a doll's cot., I loved dolls and all that went with them. Favourite occupation was always reading..

Dear Gwyn and All

Hello

The memories those stamps have evoked.

I particularly loved playing with feezy-felt as illustrated on one of the commerative
stamps.

I loved my dolls. I had a tea set and would have a little party where the guests would the dolls and the couple of Disney toys.

Very enjoyable times.

Take gentle care
Love Elizabeth, EOS
xx