Favorite Toy Growing Up

My older sister had a yarn octopus she called Gocky. She carried it everywhere until she was about ten.

She also had a blanket she couldn't go anywhere without. My mother took to cutting it in half every time she washed it.

I don't remember having a comfort toy. I may have, but if I did I've forgotten.

I do remember the first time we went to Disneyland, my parents gave us each about $40 (a fortune at the time) to buy ride tickets or souvenirs. I spent the entire amount on a wind-up metal car, which I took out of the box, wound up, & set it down at the motel. I watched in horror as it sped off, took a sharp right turn, and plunged into the motel pool.

I retrieved it and dried it off as best I could, but the next morning the spring mechanism was rusted and broken.

My favorite indoor toy was probably a biscuit tin full of assorted Lego bricks. If you include outside toys, I did love my red tricycle.

I don't have any cute stories about them, though.

A little later, as an adolescent, I had a *series* of Tonka trucks.

You see, our house was on a sloping lot. We had a sidewalk along one side of the house, that ended in a flat porch. The other side of the porch was a drop of about a foot, and then lawn.