Five Toys I Enjoyed as a Child Now Made No More

When I was a child, one of my favorite toys was a small wind-up motorcycle with a small man on it. The whole toy was made of metal and when it was wound up and placed on one of our round-seated kitchen chairs, it would go around in a circle on the edge of those round chairs and not fall off until it ran down. How anyone came up with such a toy at that time of my life is truly beyond me. My sister and I both got one of those little motorcycle men for Christmas as long as they were still popular. That was one of my favorite items as a child they don't make anymore, once available in the late 1930's.

Whatever happened to the musical tops that were usually welcomed at our house as gifts? It seems these items do not exist any longer; however, they were plentiful in the late 1930's. These toys were also made of metal with a small pedestal-like peak on the bottom that held them upright when they were pumped with a top handle that filled the body of the toy with air. They were about a foot wide and round and when pumped up, they would spin and make a humming sound. You could even let go of the handle after pumping them up and they would keep spinning and humming until they ran out of air.

Then there was a red fire truck with headlights, hoses and everything a fire truck should have. These were about a foot long and we loved to play with them in the dark so we could see the headlights. There are no signs of these items in the stores at any time of the year today. It is difficult to remember if these trucks had sirens or not. If not, we would make a siren-like noise for them. I liked to turn out the house lights and make it come out where everyone was sitting with its lights glowing and siren screaming. I wish they would come back, but they don't make these fun fire trucks anymore.

There was a game called 'jacks,' that a child could play alone and have a great time. The game consisted of five small six-pointed stars and a rubber ball that was a little smaller than a golf ball. The object was to gather the stars in one hand and the ball in the other hand. Next, you would gently throw the stars down not too far away from where you were and at the same time bounce the ball on the floor and see how many stars you could pick up in your empty hand and catch the ball before it hit the floor again. This one was a great help to developing manual dexterity. This game is now a thing of the past and no longer found in the toy shops. 'Jacks' was fun to play when you had no one to play with, but they don't make them anymore, although they did last into the early 1940's.

The paper dolls were a lot of fun and especially for girls, as we enjoyed trying all of the clothes on the dolls. These paper dolls usually consisted of at least two cardboard punch-out dolls at the first part of a book that resembled a coloring book. The other pages of the book were a good grade of paper covered with drawings of different clothing outfits to fit the dolls. How I miss cutting out each outfit and trying them on the heavy paper dolls using the little clips that bent to keep them on the dolls. These paper dolls were probably available up into the 1940's, slowly fading away and so easy to be enjoyed by one child.

Sources:

Memories of my childhood