To only pick one toy as a favorite would be a disservice to the toys that brought me much happiness when I was a child. I have to think about this in stages, and what the toy represents to me, as both and adult and a child.

The first toy I remember loving was a stuffed tiger named Bootsy. Of course, I wanted it to be a cat, so I called it a cat, and remember getting quite put off if anyone remarked on it as a tiger…She was black orange striped, and I carried her with me everywhere. When she lost one of her green marble eyes, I replaced it with a green crayola. As to her fur that was rubbed off in places, well, I never tried to fix that. This was my soft place to land- there was nothing a cuddle with Bootsy couldn’t fix.

As I got a little older, I longed for a Baby Tenderlove doll. This was a rubber baby doll that didn’t do any tricks- as low tech a doll as you could get. She had blonde curly hair, and was just soft and comforting. I loved playing Mommy and Baby with her when I came home from school. She sat on my bed all through elementary school, even after I outgrew playing with her.

It is impossible to forget about the impact of board games in my life- the two favorites of my youth were Clue and Othello. I loved playing board games- figuring out how best to play the game, what angles, etc. Games were my solace during later elementary and middle school.

Toys were very important to my youth, and these were the standouts. For the record, I still own Bootsy and Baby Tenderlove. They are tucked safely in a box of memories. And my family still has game nights- and we play Clue. I cherish these memories of my youth and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

38 thoughts on “Bloganuary Day 4: What was your favorite toy as a child”

  3. You’re so right. How to pick one specific favorite doesn’t seem accurate. I had an entire world of Barbies. I had a Raggedy Ann and Andy that I eventually used as patients in my pretend hospital-doing surgery on them, medicating them and then stitching and bandaging. I guess healthcare was in the cards for me without question. My Easy Bake oven… so many things. I love that you too still have some of those cherished toys.

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  4. 🤔 Hm. I had a small action figure woman I named Angela -or that may have been her name. I think she was from the He-Man universe.

    I learned to hate Clue because my family always, inadvertently, didn’t show me a card because they simply weren’t paying attention, causing me to lose

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  5. Love that your family enjoyed game nights, ours did too, and the memories are some of my favorites! I had dolls and barbies, legos and blocks, spent a lot of time using my imagination along side my sister! Love slipping back in time, lounging with the things that grounded and formed me. xxoo, C

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  7. What a fun topic! I haven’t thought about my toys in decades. Thank you for this treat! ❤️
    The first toy I remember having was as a toddler. I had a stuffed bunny rabbit called Hoppy. I used to drag it everywhere. I think my mom finally gave it away when I went to college and giving it away broke my heart. Yes, I admit I was sad. The dolls that were special to me… my parents found a beautiful antique doll wearing a large straw hat and high button shoes. I knew it was from an estate sale and I couldn’t play with it but it was supposed to decorate my bedroom and lie on my pillow. I thought she was gorgeous. My mother was a huge fan of Gone with the Wind and she told me how she waited in a line wrapped around the block in 1939 to see the film with her friends as a teenager. She bought the film version of the book because it had photos from the movie. The large doll I learned when I was old enough, was actually Scarlet O’Hara in the afternoon party dress Vivian Leigh wore at the beginning of the film. I wasn’t allowed to play with her she was only for display. I would take her carefully off my cover and would transfer her to my rocking chair before I’d go to bed and then dream of being my doll wearing a spectacular long afternoon garden party dress. I knew she was a fancy doll and I had to be extra careful with her.
    Next was my tiny tears doll who was my special baby. My mom let me pick her out. As it turned out I liked the black Tiny Tears doll. I thought she had the pretties face and sweetest smile. That’s the baby doll I liked, so my mom got me her. I got teased by a couple children in the neighborhood because of my doll’s complexion but I was pretty clueless. One day I overheard a neighbor asking my mother why she let me have a “colored” doll. My mom scolded the neighbor. She told her not to say anything to me because she thought it was sweet and she didn’t want me to grow up and judge others with prejudice. I took that doll everywhere! After that, Patty Playpal , a life size doll I got for Chanukah one year was my next, then I had a Revlon doll. Which came out right before Barbie . My sister had a Barbie but I was ten by then and remember even tho I really wanted a Barbie I knew I was supposed to be getting too big to play with dolls. However, secretly I really wanted to. Luckily, I pretended to be appeasing my sister by playing Barbie with her, but actually I loved making and designing clothing for my sister’s Barbies. How crazy that at ten I felt pressured to grow up. 😳The next dolls my sister and I were given were giant porcelain nurse dolls. They were hand painted porcelain and had real hair that was glued on.

    My favorite games I played with my gal pals as a little girl was jacks. We used a golf ball because they bounced so high and we could keep adding jacks to our game and throw the ball high enough to swoop in and collect all the jacks. We would have neighborhood jacks tournaments and got incredibly good at the game.. I loved the hula hoop too. It was THE toy of the late 50’s. Boys and girls in our various blocks would practice and then have block parties and have hula hoop competitions using hoops of varying sizes. For a couple years I was my block’s hula hoop campion.
    As far as board games it was without a doubt monopoly. The whole family played it almost every weekend. I remember my own kids loved Monopoly and Clue when they were growing up.

    I started playing piano as a child and then guitar as a teen. They aren’t toys but instruments were something I played and enjoyed. This year my youngest son searched the globe and found a 1966 vintage red and white fender mustang guitar. He actually found it over seas, listened to it via FaceTime during the pandemic and purchased it from a retired musician who used to play rock music in London, Paris, Germany etc. When it arrived, my son took it in to his guitar guy who kept original the insides for us and updated and perfected the instrument for a better sound. Its awesome. It’s made with wood that is now endangered so it’s lighter than guitars made today, which is perfect because my sons guitars are too heavy for me to play while I’m in chemotherapy treatment. But this guitar is incredible. I have to relearn all my old songs but it will be fun to play again. So that is my my newest toy that I was given as my 72nd bday surprise!
    What is extremely cool is that where I used a fender amp in 1966, my son bought me a tiny amp that does everything under the sun.. Technology has advanced so much. Those old amps were 4 or 5 ft high back in the day and now they are tiny and do everything but fly. Wowza.
    Thank LA for you this trip down memory lane. You made my day.

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  12. So fun! I remember Othello and Clue! I loved them as well! I don’t remember Babylove though or at least I don’t think I had one. We had a lot of Barbies growing up and board games. I played checkers and backgammon with my dad on long winter nights. Great post LA!

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  15. Life, Clue and Monopoly were board games that I loved!
    When I was really little my dollhouse was my favorite toy, spent hours making up stories with the family that lived in the dollhouse. There also was a Tree house I had, they lived next door. 🙂 And yes I still have dollhouse. 🙂 I also listened to my Pooh Bear records many times, memorized the stories.

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