This video alludes to four childhood memories growing up in the sixties - the revolving ashtray (my dad smoked and we had one - great fun unless full of ash) the toy woodpecker (we didn't have one but my friend did and it endlessly fascinated me) Betta Bilda (made by Airfix - the inferior version of Lego) Minibrix an even earlier building kit from the thirties passed on to me by an uncle.
A blog featuring whatever I fancy, often on the Christian faith but not exclusively
Showing posts with label Toy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toy. Show all posts
Two recent deaths
Two recent deaths in America caught my eye. Firstly, Bob Montgomery a music producer who worked with and wrote for Buddy Holly in Texas in their early days. Secondly, Ralph H Baer, who was a pioneer in video games including The Simon. I have fond memories of being a student and playing Simon at the manse where my future wife was resident. I'm sure we've featured it on the blog here before.
Another Christmas Present 1967 and 1973
Another more present that has come to mind, which presumably I received in 1967, when it was toy of the year is Spirograph. The gift I remember was as above. I never mastered making patterns with the elongated strips but had some fun with the circles. I remember it came with a piece of cardboard, nice shiny paper, a box of pins with which to fix the paper and coloured ink biros. The coloured pens were the best bit for me and it must have been a year or two later that I received one of those nice box sets with a selection of pens (probably made by Platinum or someone like that).
Toy of the year in 1973 was the very simple mastermind in its distinctive box. Presumably that was the year that I got that item. My wife bought a generic version of the game for the boys this Christmas.
A Child's Christmas in Wales
Dylan Thomas began his wonderful little book with the above title
One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.
All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find.
I have been trying to recapture my childhood Christmases. There is some confusion in my mind but as best I can remember each Christmas between 1965 when I was 6 and 1972 when I was 13 I had a main present from my parents and the order was as follows
1965 Johnny Seven
1966 Trik-Trak
1967 Microscope
1968 Chemistry set
1969 Bicycle
1970 Telescope
1971 Electronics kit
1972 Cassette recorder
The first two need some explanation. The Johnny Seven (and I write the day after the death of Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK47) was a child's gun that had seven components. It shot plastic white bullets, had a rifle action trigger, made a machine gun noise, had a grenade launcher and had a detachable handgun. I can't quite remember the other two (anti-tank rocket and armour piercing shell). It was big thing for a six year old (perhaps I was seven) and I remember that it was useless for lugging round in a game of war. In the end I just used to use the detachable handgun.
As for Trik-Trak see the video above which will show you both how exciting it seemed (especially after the effort involved in setting up Scalextric) and how basic it actually was. I think I was slightly disappointed even on the day I received it. The "scenery" was never used (except, oh yes, a cardboard tunnel - useless). I remember reading on the massive box that it was made in Northern Ireland.
You can see what a sucker I was for advertising. If I was little today I'd be recommending a Wonga loan to my parents.
As for Trik-Trak see the video above which will show you both how exciting it seemed (especially after the effort involved in setting up Scalextric) and how basic it actually was. I think I was slightly disappointed even on the day I received it. The "scenery" was never used (except, oh yes, a cardboard tunnel - useless). I remember reading on the massive box that it was made in Northern Ireland.
You can see what a sucker I was for advertising. If I was little today I'd be recommending a Wonga loan to my parents.
Another present Christmas 1964
I've been thinking about the Christmas of 1964 and I think it must have been that Christmas that I also received an orange plastic Beatles guitar as above. The guitar survived for many years without strings serving as a prop for miming to records. I had forgotten it had only four strings. Not an issue at the time.
Christmas 1964
I have been trying to remember my childhood Christmases. In 1964 I must have been five. By this time we had moved into a new house across the road with the birth of my sister in the September. I have a handle on the date (I think) because of a particular car I recall.
On the bonnet it says Olympics 1964 Winter Sports (the Winter Olympics were in Innsbruck that year). Of course, I could have received it in '63 or '65 I guess but '64 seems right. Anyway, I remember opening it and several other presents in my little room at the front of the house. I also recall going to my parents' room across the landing and finding an already unwrapped space station USA set that was a joy for years to come. I distinctly remember touching the missile trigger not realising that it would shoot out as it did straight at my mother's head. I also remember my dad carefully applying the transfers to the rockets that afternoon using a bowl of hot water. The rocket launcher was hard to load but when the rocket came out it went up with such force it would thud into the ceiling. I'd forgotten about the platform next to the launcher in the picture. That didn't get used much after a while. (For a blog by someone on the rocket base see here).
Eddie Mercx, etc
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| Thomas Quine, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
Playing Soldiers
My youngest son was 12 yesterday. His best (and cheapest) present was a bag of army men. He (and I) really enjoyed playing with them after tea. We shared them out and then had a battle using two dice and rules that we made up as we went on. He won. Great stuff. Later we played consequences and categories in the front room.
Etch-a-Sketch
Apparently the inventor of the etch-a-sketch, Andre Cassagnes, has died. The etch-a-sketch came out the year after I was born. I never owned one but my sister did and so I am familiar with the game. Burned into the retina of my mind is an early from when I was five or six. It was summer time and the grass had been cut in school and so kids were throwing it about. One twit decided to put a stone in one clump and throw it at me. It hit me in the head and I vividly remember putting my palm to my head and being horrified to see it covered in blood when I brought it back down. A teacher quickly arrived and I was taken somewhere that I'd never been before or since - to the headmistress's room (a Miss Morgan if I remember correctly). Now the thing is when we arrived, outside her door there was a tearful boy (Ashman if I recall) and he had in his hands something I'd never seen before or since - a broken etch-a-sketch. The vision of that grey sand has stayed with me all these more than fifty years as has finally arriving at the door of my home my head in a crepe bandage, to my mother's distress. Perhaps that bang on the head explains everything!
Toy Memory 1
When I was a student in Aberystwyth I would go to the manse on Sunday evenings and this toy would be there. I've never seen one anywhere else.
TTRMOMG 05 Daz soldiers
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| https://michtoy-from-the-front.blogspot.com/2016/09/figure-of-week-126-daz-washing-powder.html |
These cowboys and Indians were given away free with Daz in the sixties and my Nana, my dad's mother, used to collect them for me. Cowboys were done in red plastic, Indians in brown. My, I had some fun with them.
Caerdydd
We've been staying with Eleri's sister in Cardiff for a few days. We came chiefly because the national eisteddfod is in Cardiff this year. Eleri and some of the boys went along on two days. She was helping on the stondin for the London Welsh School. I only went on the Thursday. We had glorious sunshine. It was quite enjoyable to walk around and see the different stalls and activities. I guess 90% of what you hear is in Welsh but you can't keep English out completely, at least on the maes. Part of the joy for Eleri and others is meeting old friends. You can't walk very far without meeting someone you know. I actually know a few myself such as parents with children at the Welsh School, relatives and old Aber connections. I enjoyed meeting again Gwyn Rhydderch (facebook here) and his wife (he's a national children's worker for the Presbyterians in Wales) whose reading my book on Proverbs, Dr Watcyn James (the Bible Society’s Welsh Development Officer), Meirion Morris (Presbyterian minister with the Presbyterians), Derrick Adams (minister of the Welsh church in Aber), Roger Thomas (an Aber based Welsh worker who works in fairs and shows round the country). I spotted but didn't get chance to talk to Hywel M Davies, Arfon Jones (who has this nice website for Welshies here) and Guto Harri (who I don't know at all but has a familiar face). I had a nice chat with Emmanuel Durand (A Welsh speaking Frenchman who I met originally through Alan Davey). On the Thursday evening Eleri, her sisters and mam went to a concert to celebrate Catin's recently turning 40. It was the C Ffactor concert featuring Cerys Matthews, Connie Fisher, Catrin Finch, Shân Cothi, Caryl Parry Jones and Cantorion. Very good apparently.
The day before I made a visit to the National Museum (I'd actually gone on the Monday but it was closed and so I just did some window shopping with Dewi. We particualrly liked Hawkins Bazaar). That was very nice. I looked at the current exhibition "Origins: in search of early Wales". It started badly with ridiculous dating and other horrors but got better, although my suspicious mind suggested a hidden agenda to sideline the gospel. After a nice coffee and bakestone I did the art gallery next. I really enjoyed that. They have works by Rubens, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Millet, one by Van Gogh (Rain - of course), Cezanne, Monet, one by Lowry, etc. I was interested in a painting by an artist I'd never heard of called Gerritsz Quiringh Van Brekelendam. A Duch interior, it looked a very innocent piece but the write up suggested the woman was a prostitute and the more you looked the more you could see that was so (I hadn't spotted the man's clothes hanging up by the bed for example!). It was a lesson in careful observation and (this blog's stock in trade I guess) discerning the heavenly and the worldly.
After lunch I met up with Rhodri and Sibyl who joined us from London by coach and then we all spent a sunny afternoon at the Bay, where national play day appeared to be taking place. The kids had great fun and so did we adults.
Tuesday was our only wet day and we spent half of it in Cwmbran seeing my sister and dad, etc. We played games and talked. I also took time in the week to read and chat and generally enjoy the time. Good stuff. Oh yeah, another joy was walking along the road in Cardiff that our road in London is named after and finding the house with our number. Little things .... Bigger fools ....
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