What toys did you play with as a child?

As a child in the 40s and 50s there was not a lot of money for toys. My father made me a pram, desk and chair, a cot for my doll and even a washing machine for the doll's clothes.

Me and my sister only had toys really Xmas and birthdays. Pocket money was spent on bars chocolate and magazines mainly. I remember being bored alone playing with mum's button tin.lol marbles conkers. An old sheet over some chairs to make a den the cut out doll dressing books we bought a lot of . Colouring books chalk hop scotch . Mud pies out garden reading . Cats cradle with rubber bands .skipping ropes . Troll .post office set I loved sweet shop .happy days. !

I was a child of the40's. One of my Christmas gifts that stayed in my mind was a John Bull printing set probably in around 1946. Also a scooter and a Dandy comic annual.
My Dad bought home large celluloid doll when he returned from serving n Burma.

I had a very large family of dolls and teddies and loved them to bits. As I grew older I played schools and hospitals with them as well as houses.

I had a dolls' house too and spent hours playing with it.

But I also had my father's toy garage with loads of cars and played with it too. And I had a fire engine and a crane as well.

I was grown up in the 1970s when people started talking about "gender specific toys" and that it was wrong to give little girls dolls and prams and boys cars and trains.

I found it, and still find it a load of nonsense. Children will play with what they want to play with - I had friends when I was small who were boys and some of them played happily with my dolls, just as I played happily with their trains.

Parents and other kindergarten teachers should leave it to the children to decide what they want to play with.