As you will remember, there were no other children living nearby when I was little with the exception of Tina's visits to her grandmother who lived next door. For the most part I spent my time in the playground of my imagination. I had a Hopalong Cassidy gun and holster set which was black tooled leather with silver studs and "rubies". It had a cap gun that you put a roll of caps in and went around shooting everything. It seems a little strange to me now but in researching the memorabilia there were cowgirl outfits that were Hopalong Cassidy even though he never kissed girls on the screen. I just had the gun and holster set. Sometimes I would take a stone and smash the caps on the sidewalk to make them go off. There would be a loud smacking sound and you could smell the "gunpowder" in the air.
I also had a tin dollhouse. It was a two story colonial that was enclosed on three sides. The back of it was open so that you could move the furniture around. It was painted outside with windows and shutters and a front door and inside each room was painted with windows and walls and rugs and so forth. It was one of my favorite things. For some reason my mother decided it was going to the trash which upset me greatly.
That reminded me that there was a picture of me, a real studio portrait, when I was about four. I was holding my one and only stuffed toy. I don't remember getting it, just having it. This dog was made of loopy white yarn and I named it Rags. The little old lady across the street had a dog that was named Rags and that's who I named it after. At some point in time I guess Rags had had more than his share of love and attention and my mother put him in the washing machine. Needless to say, Rags went to doggie heaven and I was devastated. There was no replacement.
We used to play with marbles; aggies were the big ones. There were solid colors and ones with other colors imbedded in them. You could trade them but I don't think I ever did. How do you play "marbles"? I really don't remember.
Tina and I would play "dress-up" with her Nanna's clothes and shoes. She had fancy hats and furs and jewels. We would have tea parties and make lots of mud pies.
The sidewalk provided playtime for us also. I was not allowed to cross the street and could only go up and down within sight of my house. Still, that was plenty of space for riding my trike or roller skating or playing hopscotch.
I had a doll that had a composite head with a painted face, a cloth body and some kind of rubber arms and legs. It was named "Joey baby" after my uncle Joe. I think it was a Honey Baby doll and so I called it "Joey baby". Don't ask me why this girl doll got a boy's name. I have no idea, except that I do know that I thought the world revolved around my uncle Joe. She had painted hair and sleep eyes that closed when you laid her down. There was some kind of sound thing in her stomach and she would say "waaa" or "mama". She had latex "majic skin" for arms and legs that was stuffed to make it feel more real. Eventually her arms and legs turned brown, because whatever they were stuffed with caused a reaction, while the rest of her stayed pink. Shortly after that she was relegated to the trash bin. Oh, the horror of it. There are no examples of these dolls today because of the decomposition.
No comments:
Post a Comment