Thursday 19 January 2012

'Toys'

When I was about eleven or twelve, all the girls in my class had 'best friends', apart from me and one other girl. So, the other girls set us up on a 'best friend date'. I was supposed to go over to H's house and there we would play. That way we too would become best friends and all the girls in the class were properly set up.

Off I went to H's house to play. But horror of horrors, she wanted me to play with dolls! Barbie dolls! How was I supposed to know how to play with dolls? I never did at home. I played with my brother's lego or his racing set. I read books and I knitted. But most of all I played outside with other neighbourhood children. We roamed the neighbourhood, we played Jail ball, Hide and Seek, Potato in the Pan, Softball, we climbed trees, raced shopping carts, fell in ditches, off bike racks or cycled somewhere. I certainly never played with dolls!

There was however one very important member in our household. It wasn't a doll but a teddy bear. And without this teddy bear I couldn't sleep. My father has turned the car around on one occasion to go get it. We bought a replacement bear that itched. But usually I just made sure I had it with me. And I still have it. It's very battered and bruised and definitely needs to see a doctor, but he's still here. Sitting on my bedside table in his little pink and orange bikini I knitted him.

By the way, me and H never hit it off...

This is my second entry for Photo Theme Thursday. Why not join?

9 comments:

  1. Wat een lief verhaal ;) What a sweet story. Your teddy bear looks more like a koala bear, and yes he does need to see a doctor.

    What I have left in terms of toys from my childhood is a charm necklace with silver charms of among others, an Amsterdam canal house, a cuckoo clock, the Eiffel tower, a gondola and Manneke Pis, many of them brought back from trips my parents took.

    I should wear it some time and see what comments I get ;)

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  2. I'm not surprised you and H didn't become best friends.
    I've no toys from my childhood but I have a book - Heidi - that my parents gave me on my ninth birthday.

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  3. How wonderful that you still have your much loved bear. It is cute.
    I wish I still had mine. My mother threw it out because it 'stank'. And it smelled so good *sigh*. The combination of drool and just enough puke had just added a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to bear's odour. Ah well...

    I'll just have to do the feckin' jigsaw again ;-)

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  4. It's odd what kids get attached to. We bring a big Winnie the Pooh back and forth and even put a coat on him in winter.

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  5. waht a great story, makes the photo stronger... ;)

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  6. Hello Mara,
    What a lovely story.
    From the Costa del Sol in Spain
    you get from me, with the same name,
    Saludos con cariño de
    Mara

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  7. Never to the doctor with this bear, because it's then not your bear anymore. He's fine as he is. Be careful with him.

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  8. Your bear looks like it was given a lot of love. Cute story.

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  9. And I had so many toys, dolls, doll house, plush animals, cats, dogs, Bambi etc but NEVER EVER a Teddy Bear ! So the first thing I bought when my son was little, was a Teddy which he carried around night and day !

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