I was over at Robin’s blog this morning, reading about her curio cabinet and how she lets her grandies carefully handle its delicate contents, and it made me think about the collection of strange little toys my mother’s mother kept for us.
Behind the couch at Grandma’s house, there were shelves, floor to ceiling. The top had glass menagerie, the middle shelves — music and books, and the lowest shelves — games, puzzles, and toys.
(I have gobs of cousins, but we all have that one cousin who is closer in age and more cousin-y than all the other cousins, right?)
My cousin-nest cousin and I played with the toys back there behind the couch, and those toys so did not go together. Most of them weren’t even toys, really. I specifically remember a wooden spool, a plastic giraffe and lamb, a blue teddy bear eraser, a tiny silver watering can, and some sort of smoothly carved wooden objet d’art which was an animal, but not a real animal of any sort, hence d’art. There were other things I can’t quite put my finger on. My mind is spinning at the idea that there was an oversize die with no side the same in color, but I can’t quite hold it still in my head. There were obsidian figures in grass skirts, and the longer I think on them, the more they seem like Buddhas…I’m telling you, these were not typical toys at all. These items, even the ones that seem related, were not to scale. That plastic lamb could have eaten the plastic giraffe!
I can remember playing house with these bizarre baubles. I can remember my cousin and I built a house from books and even had a farm with domino fencing…
I also recall that my other, much younger cousin did not play with the random toys properly and this caused many fights. By the time she could play with the toys, we’d long gone by a set script. We were mean that way. But then, our parents had fawned over her and her baby preciousness for years, so we felt justified in our exclusion.
I suppose my cousin and I both have fantastic imagination and a sense of make-do, although at the time, we were just kids at play.
my gumby & pokey
I bet if you think about it, looking at kids you knew then, and kids you know now, you can imagine which ones could spend an afternoon at play with odds and ends. We were those kinda kids. Did Grandma put those toys out because we were those kinda kids, or are we those kinda kids because those are the toys she set out?
joeyfullystated 
I remember having a mish-mash of toys that were actually my parents’ knick-knacks. They had a lot of brass – what sticks out in my mind were a couple of figures – women or priests with long wide robes. The figurines were bells. But I played by myself… no siblings, no family, few friends. Probably why I’m so good at being alone now. 🙂
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Probably! Thanks for chimin in 🙂
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I think Grand parents put all of the stuff that the various Grand kids had ever played with in the “box” or on the shelf. At least that was how it was when my kids were little. So maybe you were both sorts of kids. As for my memories of toys they were plastic Army men and cars and the obligatory stick guns. The short 6 shooter and the longer rifle.
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Maybe. My other grandparents did not. They had games and puzzles, but we kids had to take toys. Ah, stick guns, how timeless! 🙂
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Ahh that rings a bell. My Mother had a box of stuff for the Grand kids to play with, the Mother in law nada.
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I’m going with you are those kinda kids because of the toys Grandma set out. She knew what she was doing, forcing you to use your imaginations– and saving herself oodles of money by not buying the latest toys for you. 🙂
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Thanks, Ally Bean, I do wonder. I remember sometimes our parents would chide us over wanting shiny new toys, when obviously we played with those old things at Grandma’s just fine 😉
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My grandmother had a box like that too. We did most of our playing outside though, even in the winter. It still required imagination.
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My grandma had nothing. We were not to touch anything or make any noise. We really disliked going to grandma’s house. I like your imagination with what you had.
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Ugh, that’s the worst.
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I remember my grandma’s toys too. Similar to yours, they were odds and ends, probably because that’s what she had left over in the house. But I loved them. Most of them were older so I never saw them in toy stores and such. But she did have one really creepy monkey–you know, the type with the banging symbols? I steered clear of that thing.
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Haha! Yeah, I do. Eek!
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My fondest memory of “playing” with a cousin as a kid was when my cousin Phil was picking on me one day to make himself look good in front of his girlfriend (who thought it was hilarious.). Hed take one of my crutches and run away with it and laugh at me cuz I couldnt go anywhere to catch him. We were sitting by a shed full of stuffs, so after a bit of this, I grabbed a hammer and thew it at him..I think we were 12..?
Anyway, he was in the middle of running away and it was the shot of a lifetime. He got a concussion, his GF had to go home and I got to sit in the car reading my book. 😛
He still wont talk to me. LOL
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His loss!
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I remember growing up and being able to play with anything odd and interesting. Making up our own games – with our own rules – was the best part of days spent with cousins.
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My grandmother had a candy dish, but she made it clear early on that eating the candy was reserved for guests. I wondered for years whether or not I was a guest, but I’m sure now that I never was. And I never ate that candy. She didn’t have any toys, but she had photos of everyone in the whole universe it seemed.
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Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Brenda 🙂
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Found you on Robin’s site. Thought I’d stop by for a visit.
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My grandma once showed me how she and her sisters played as kids. They broke up sticks and dug out roads and stuff in the dirt, made little towns from twigs and leaves, you get the picture. She was born in 1925 and from a poorer farming family, so she said they had to make do without toys like the other kids. I loved playing like that myself.
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I did too, but I remember the onslaught of cars in my villages. Boys.
I see you were definitely in the big imagination camp!
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Leaving random tat around to play with is one of the main the jobs of grandparents.
I’m pretty sure the logic there is; “Right, the little horrors are coming for the weekend, put all the expensive stuff away and lay out all that crap from the attic, they’ll play with anything, they’re kids.”
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I still have the box of wooden and PVC pipe “mechano” that Magoo bought for my younger brother and I to play with (from a door to door salesman in the 70’s!)
Now the Grandkiddies and T’s babes seek it out every time they come!
I love remembering the way we used to play with it, and watching the little ones interpret the toys in a more modern way 🙂
Toys!
Children!!
Love… smile….clean up….repeat…
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My grandparents had a random assortment too but we thought it was fun because it was different!
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Thank you, Joey. What an “ingrate”
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. . .I have been. I just am slow at reading everyone’s blogs. When I liked some posts on your blog, I didn’t write comments and when I did I forgot to like them. Maybe I am more of an “idiot” than an ingrate. Smiles and thank you for your giving me credit for inspiring your writing about your special treasures. 🙂 🙂
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I thank you for the inspiration, and I do not feel you’ve been ungrateful!
I’m late to get to your blog, too. I do so wish you had an email subscription available, but I’ll get back to you, as always 🙂
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