My Nursery

    I had a dream the other night of what my nursery would have looked like if I had one when I was growing up.  I don’t mean I didn’t have a crib and all that, of course I did.  I was thinking more along the lines of a proper nursery like in England.  More of what we Americans would call a playroom than anything else.  A safe place for a child to go play with their toys and let their imaginations run wild.  In my dream, I was all different ages as my most favorite childhood toys began to live again.  A smile touches my lips as the first item to come to mind is my inchworm.

An inchworm? She likes worms? Eww.  I can picture some of my younger readers saying this.  My inchworm was special.  A riding toy that was literally a long worm with a smiling face and a yellow saddle, hat and matching wheels.  Here is a link so you can see him.  http://www.feelingretro.com/toy_img/inchworm.jpg

I rode him almost everywhere around my neighborhood and I’m sure our neighbors got quite a kick out of seeing the little girl with the worm roaming around the neighborhood.

As I turn my head I see my white roller skates with the red wheels and the purple fuzzy balls that you could tie into the laces.  The fuzzy balls have a little bell on them just like the bells used in cat toys.  I still don’t know exactly what the bell was for.  I certainly couldn’t hear it ringing from way up at the other end of my body as I usually had wind whipping through my hair as I raced down the sidewalks on my skates or inside the roller rink. 

Sitting next to my skates is Dancerella although I know I never called her that once I owned her.  Here is a picture of the one I had. http://www.feelingretro.com/toy_img/dancerella.gif
I had her for almost an hour before my dad spilled coffee on her tights.  Because her outfit wasn’t removable we were never able to get the stain totally out of her.  I would spend hours with her inside my room pushing up and down on the plastic knob on the top of her crown making her spin and kick. 

Usually by that point I was also surrounded by legos.  I had the original kind as I like to think of them and not the specialized ones they offer now a days.  Mine were all squares with the neatest thing being the little windows that you could put in.  It was just a piece with an open space that you could connect in between other pieces.  A lot was left to the imagination. 

Another building set my mother bought me was Lincoln Logs.  Here you go with the picture. 

http://www.toydirectory.com/monthly/ToyShowImges/HGG-4390.jpg

How many of my older readers remember these?  So simple and yet hours of fun.  Especially if you had farm animals from other toys.  You could make a whole ranch and pretend to be out west.

My first and second bicycles fill one corner along with the rocking horse that I had and the one that I would have wanted.  My first bicycle was for some reason a navy blue color and was so short that I could put both feet on the ground.  I guess that made it easier for me to learn it and the training wheels were quickly removed.  My second bike was higher and I had that at two different houses.  It was in the late 70's and the style showed it.  Banana handlebars with streamers and the seat had a blue butterfly as did the chain guard.  My dad fixed a large orange fiberglass stick to the back with a flag on the top so cars couldn’t miss me.  I learned quickly not to run my hands along the stick as I got fiberglass in my fingers.  Both of my older sisters had the flags too and we all hated them although we understood why they were necessary.  The rocking horse I wished I had stands tall and majestic looking like it has come fresh off a carousel and has actual rockers on the bottom.  It doesn’t need to neigh, just to rock.  My actual rocking horse was a small brown horse that had all four feet in the air as if running and was suspended on squeaky springs.  It neighed if you pushed a button, but I found it annoying and after a while just rode it without pushing the button.  The mane was part of the whole horse and I had to pretend to be able to pet it.  I also had one of the horse heads on a stick that you put between your legs and run around with.  I tended to use that more often than the rocking horse.

On a desk was my container of silly putty eggs, markers, colored pencils, regular pencils and my proudly displayed full box of 96 crayons.  Those crayons were for my use only.  When my friends came over I had a different set which was composed of all the broken crayons and pieces of chalk from previous boxes.  This set was kept in a plastic gallon container that used to hold ice cream but was perfect for a kid to haul crayons in. 

I laughed in my dream and got a sly look as I spotted two of my sister’s toys that I was forbidden to touch.  I went over to the Baby Alive. 
http://www.catheroo.com/images/1600/babyalive.jpg
You fed her special food and she pooped it out.  My sister forbid me from ever touching her so of course I did only when she wasn’t home.  The other is the Barbie hotel that she had.  I couldn’t find a picture of it.  It was basically a three story piece of cardboard with pictures of what the room would hold imprinted in the cardboard.  It had pink dividers for each floor and came with a yellow elevator.  You would put the Barbie into the elevator and pull it up with your hand.  I ljust think of how many fights we had over that toy.  Mom would let me play with it when sis wasn’t home and then she’d come home and find out and a big argument would start even though I hadn’t broken anything.

I look further and see my Weeble Wobble tree house and a slight grin passes my face.  “They weeble and they wobble, but they won’t fall down,” I whisper the theme song. 
http://www.hailtocc.org/gifts/Weeble-Wobbles.aspx
Of course they won’t fall down, they are egg shaped characters with weights on the bottom to keep them upright.  Next to that is my Little People Treehouse.
http://thisbiochemicallife.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/7.jpg
I still have the little boy from this playset roaming around in my jewelry box.  It’s a sentimental thing and I just won’t give him up.  Nor will I give up Souffle, the skunk from the Strawberry Shortcake collection.  She still smells good after all these years. 

I woke up with the sun shining and feeling wonderful as these memories cascaded through me and I wonder what will your nursery look like?