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<< Previous   of   Next >> Kristi O'Harran / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Ann Hall keeps these toys from her childhood for her grandchildren to enjoy at her Everett home.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, December 14, 2007 Today's kids missed out on some classic toys By Kristi O'Harran Herald Columnist It wouldn't be Christmas at some homes without Silly Putty, Cooties and a Slinky. The toys and games of our childhood are often all-time favorite gifts. Ann Hall of Everett kept some of her favorites for her grandchildren. "My late husband and I both loved old toys," Hall said. "The 'Little Jim Steamroller' from JCPenney, probably from the 1930s, was pushed around by both grandsons on the kitchen floor." The horse bicycle is another toy that got a lot of use when the children were younger, Hall said. "My oldest granddaughter spent hours playing house with my old stuffed monkeys and teddy bears. When my youngest granddaughter gets a little older -- she's not even 1 -- I know she will enjoy playing with them, too." After his three brothers came home from World War II, each wounded, Bill Brayer of Edmonds said his oldest brother gave him his favorite Christmas gift, a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. "The entire family, with the exception of my father, was together for Christmas for the first time in years because of the war," Brayer, 74, said. "I was 11 when my father died in 1944. One of my brothers took over helping my mother raise me as I was the last and youngest of seven children." The gun was wrapped in a large box so he couldn't guess what it was, Brayer said. "I spent many days, hours, shooting my BB gun at various targets my brother made for me to shoot at. He made me promise that I would never shoot it at animals." On a farm in Carnation, Norma Pilkenton, 71, from Everett, said money was as scarce as hen's teeth. "When I was 3, I had different sizes of bottle caps for teacups, a cardboard box for a table and a pretend baby to share it with," Pilkenton said. "My dad milked 120 cows (every) night and morning and worked eight hours in the shipyard. Apples came in wooden boxes and flour in printed sacks." Her father collected the boxes to build two chairs, one for her and another occupied by a real doll that wet her pants, a table with two teacups, a teapot, creamer and glass sugar bowl, along with a flour-sack tablecloth. Her mother sewed her clothes and made matching flour-sack outfits for the doll. The present that sticks out to Gail Lynes, 57, from Everett, was a transistor radio received when she was 10. "Not much by today's standards," Lynes said. "It didn't take phone calls, take pictures, keep a diary, didn't help me chat with my friends, couldn't download anything, and the only thing it could connect to was radio stations." But the gift changed her life, she said. "At night, when the radio signals came through stronger, I'd huddle under the blankets with my transistor radio, and pick up XERB out of Tijuana. Wolfman Jack, transmitting all the new rock 'n' roll that the mainstream United States stations wouldn't play." She became a rock 'n' roll baby, she said. "And just a little bit of a rebel," Lynes said. "I'm sure my parents often regretted that gift choice." Something she hadn't thought of for decades popped into her head, said Eurdice Haggard, 41, from Lynnwood. "My very, very favorite toy was a Flip Wilson doll," Haggard said "Boy, I get mushy thinking about it after all this time. I loved that doll more than life itself." The doll was a Christmas present when she was 6 or 7, she said. "One side was Flip Wilson and the other side was Geraldine. When you pulled the string it would say, 'The devil made me do it, Honey,' in Geraldine's voice. Gracious, I took that thing everywhere." From a very poor Nebraska farming family, Pat Jacobs, who lives in Snohomish, said he never expected much at Christmas, so he was glad for whatever he got. There were three high points, he said. "About 1939, give or take a year, my Grandmother Thomsen in California sent a small set of Lincoln Logs. They couldn't build but one small building, but I thought they were the nicest things I ever received." With the end of the depression, his Uncle Al in California began sending small presents, Jacobs said. "I only remember a Slinky, must have been 1945, but the fact that they remembered me was wonderful." The third event was also Christmas 1945. Jacobs said he wanted roller skates, the good Union brand, that clamped onto the soles of shoes with a key. "I made it clear to all and sundry that only Unions would do. Frankly, I expected to get the cheapest variety, so was wondrously surprised to receive the best. That may have been the happiest Christmas of my childhood." He and his friends rode many a mile around Albuquerque, N.M., on their skates. "I guess that it doesn't take much to cheer a kid with low expectations," Jacobs said. "But Christmas has always been the high point of the year." For decades, children made wheels, squares, wagons, just about anything, with Tinker Toys. For Lisa Vaughn, 36, from Arlington, said that was the toy she played with most. "I remember making Ferris wheels with them, and the smell, it was very unique," Vaughn said. "And another nice thing about them is if you are a girl or a boy, it doesn't really matter, it's going to be fun for all." Canadian Susi Bryant, 46, who works in Everett, remembers happy moments standing over her Easy Bake Oven, smelling her cake baking. Now, Bryant said, she spends the Sundays before Christmas standing over the smell of truffles and chocolates in her American kitchen. Life was good with white go-go boots, said Julie Welke, 49, from Mill Creek, and with her other Christmas present, a blue Huffy bicycle. "With a banana seat," Welke said. "And a packet with daisies on it." She said she was on cloud nine, riding that bike, in those boots. With her father in the military, money was tight. Sharon Mills, 43, who lives in Everett, said she remembers two special toys. "One was a Barbie RV," Mills said. "I could play with that for hours on end and let me say that as a little girl, I loved to believe that my life would be fun. I could sit for hours and dress up Barbies and pretend that we were somewhere beautiful." Mary Campbell, a librarian who works in Oak Harbor, reminded parents to not forget to give children the classics, books, such as "Peter Pan" and "Wind in the Willows." As a girl, she loved troll dolls with crazy-colored hair. "We would dress them up and act out all kinds of games with them," Campbell said. "They were way more fun than Barbie, because you could make entire new outfits with a tiny scrap of cloth and a pair of scissors. Big boxes made fantastic troll houses, which we would decorate with more scraps of cloth, cardboard and other 'Borrower' type paraphernalia." Columnist Kristi O'Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.

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