Vintage Toys

Sometimes the best conversations I have are with my brother Mike over the phone or in person about growing up. Today was just one of those times. Not quite sure how we got started on the topic of our favorite toys we had growing  up but it definitely brought up special memories of how we use to spend our free time in an age where technology was for the most part absent until later.

I remember Saturday mornings were days we looked forward to because it was for two precious hours from 8:00am to 10:00am we got to watch the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Hour, then we grabbed our favorite toys and headed outside to play until it was too dark or too cold to be outside any more. No cell phones, internet or video games. This was all about putting our imaginations to work.

Want to walk on memory lane with me? I'm sure if you're around my age you can relate!

Besides Barbies and G-I-Joes, which occupied hours and hours of our time, Hot Wheels were our favorite. We used to store the cars in shoe boxes and during the week after homework was done we would take down some old paneling my dad had stored in the garage and we would draw roads and cities to drive our Hot Wheels on. We removed all the model buildings from my brothers train set my dad built him and added those to our panel city. The top of my mom's record player was the mall and we even added Elmer's Glue to the parking lot of the mall for speed bumps when it dried. During the holidays like Christmas, we added small pine trees to an empty section of the city as a Christmas tree lot and even Candy Pumpkins were our pumpkin patch. In fact today, we can't help remembering these times when we see them in the stores at Halloween.

It was all about imagine and for my brother and I, we were never without. Some of the toys we talked about this morning was Johnny and Jane West Action Figures complete with the buck board and horses.

We also remember the old fashioned Hot Wheel tracks with the 2 foot orange tracks with the purple tongues that enabled us to connect them together.

I remember having a Duke the Rescue Dog with his action set that I used to play with as Barbie's dog. That was before the days when Barbies came with everything.

I had the Barbie RV with the pop out tent that was something we played with every weekend.

I absolutely LOVED Breyer Horses and even to this day, still pick them up at Garage Sales when I find them. Back when I was little I didn't have too many but the ones I did were truly cherished by a little girl who loved horses!
 

My brother also remembered Sizzlers the first race cars that were powered to run on the Hot Wheel tracks before AFX. Don't get me started there too. AFX tracks were the best. You always needed to have a pencil eraser and copper penny on hand just to tune up your cars.

The best part is that these were all part of our childhood. Even now, they truly don't make them like they used to. Oh but the memories they provided and still do looking back. What were your favorite toys from your childhood before technology came into play?