Before PlayStation: The toys I grew up with – Part 1

I grew up in the sixties, before the age of technology. I marvel now at some of the amazing toys my grandchildren have: video games with realistic graphics, dolls that talk to you and eat, puppies that actually grow and can say your name, a Transformer helmet that makes you sound just like Optimus Prime. Add to these the mind-boggling virtual reality of the Wii game. It’s enough to overwhelm a baby boomer Nana! While all these wonderful toys are entertaining, I miss the good ol’ toys. You know, the ones that actually required us to use our imagination.

I was pretty much a tomboy as a kid. While my friends were playing with Barbies, I was playing with my Johnny West and his pals. I had Johnny, Jane, the two kids, and their Indian companion, whose name I forgot. I had all the horses, too, along with the saddles, bridles, and blankets. I would spend hours creating stables by standing books up on edge. I actually “fed” and “watered” the herd every night before going to bed. Johnny and company spent many hours in the saddle, riding the trails in my bedroom and in my back yard. My Barbie-playing friends and I tried to get Barbie to ride the horses since she was just the right size. Unfortunately, poor Barb’s legs didn’t bend, so when we tried to force her onto the steed, one of her lower limbs would invariably pop off. When bendable-leg Barbie came out, we couldn’t wait to sit her on Johnny’s horse! After that, my friends and I could actually play together more often, letting Barbie join Johnny and Jane on the numerous roundups and trail rides.

We played all the usual board games, like Monopoly, Chinese checkers, Sorry, and Parchesi, but my favorite was Operation. Remember how you had to remove certain body parts from the “patient”? And if you didn’t have a steady hand, and accidentally touched the wrong area, a loud beeping sound would occur and the patient’s nose would light up. Looking back, I suppose that meant that you’d “killed” the patient, but that never dawned on us at the time. Nowadays, the shaky-handed “surgeon” would probably be slapped with a malpractice suit! Hmm…there’s an idea for a new game!

Another game that my friends and I thought was really “groovy” was Twister. It had a large plastic mat with circles in different colors. You spun a dial that told you which of your body parts you had to put into which circle. Basically, the players had to become human pretzels – contortionists. The tangles of young bodies were sometimes pretty scary.