My Life and Dreams

Saturday, July 18, 2020

October 15, 2016- More Toys and Childhood Fun Part 3

I was a little jealous that Kathy had that Barbie Styling Head and the Cher doll. I had fun reading her Archie and Friends comic books. We also enjoyed playing her Family Feud game. Terry had an Easy Bake Oven; I wished that I could have one too.

We made a tent by putting sheets over our swing set. Cindy and Jessica were in it too. We used a blanket over a card table to make a cave in our basement. I made a camper out of a cardboard storage box and blanket over this. I slept inside of it with my Kerri doll.

Was it just mom or both of our parents that made us a hut/cave out of the limbs and branches from the tree that we had cut down in our yard? One of my favorite childhood photos is of us in this. I’m wearing my Rocky and Bullwinkle sweatshirt and holding my Kerri doll. We would sometimes climb up the Christmas type tree in our front yard, Mike more so than me.

Some other outdoor fun included bike riding, the tree swing at Grandma’s farm, badminton, Frisbee, lawn darts, playing in the leaf piles, our sandbox, and building snowmen. We made a snow fort once with Kelly. Mom helped Mike and I make a house out of the big cardboard box from our new fridge.

I remember Cindy, Jessica, Mike and I were having such a good time on the swings up by the town school but then a little later something scary happened to my brother. He fell off of the monkey bars and had trouble breathing for a bit.

Kelly and I played tennis there once but we gave up after only a little while. I was so bad at this. My parents had bought me a Miss Chris (Evert) racquet on clearance at either Service Merchandise or Consumers; I still have it.

Some crafts that I did were making a couple of Shrinky Dinks over at my friend Michelle T’s house and the Make It – Bake It kits (which were like stained glass window decorations) with my brother.

I botched up a Merry Christmas latch hook rug that I made though. Mom did a cute koala one. I was better at Punch Embroidery. We were into that craft in the mid-late 1980s. I still have the raccoon one that I made. Thank goodness that my cousin gave it back to me before moving to Florida. I let her temporarily take it to hang in the craft store that she was manager of.

Mom was into the Tri-Chem paint craft in the late 70s and early 80s. The catalog from that company had some very nice pictures. She did a raccoon one for me which is hanging in my room. She also made a religious one for our grade school principal. I used the paint to do drawings on stuff like a t-shirt and the pillow case that I kept my Girl Scout sleeping bag in.

Is it weird that I actually liked the smell of that paint? Probably yes. I also have 2 little pictures – a dove that mom did and one of a doggie done by our babysitter Dina. She wrote the name of our dog, Rusty, on the sweater that it is wearing.