We were very lucky that, like ?Juicy Lucy, our father was a woodwork teacher. We used to have one “big” present every Christmas, something wooden he had made. I remember a slide, a seesaw, a rocking horse, a toy ride-in engine for my brother, a doll’s cot that would have taken a small child for me, though I wasn’t a very dollsy girl. This was well before the days when those things were widely available either as garden toys or plastic indoor ones. When we moved house, we were at the stage of growing out of them by then, my parents persuaded to give the big toys to the local hospital, as there wasn’t going to be room for them in the new house, I remember being very sad. Especially when somebody told Dad they were put in a store cupboard and never used, health and safety early days I expect.
I also remember quite a few of the toys mentioned earlier.
We always loved a preChristmas visit to the department stores toy department in the city, always with people demonstrating toys, followed by tea in the store cafe, a real treat.
I remember my brother having a huge train set which had been passed down from my father’s two older brothers to him, he was the only boy of all the cousins. Dad built a table on folding legs to mount it on in the attic, and made little hills and bridges for it to run through, all painted green, with little people at the station. He sold it in his 20’s to buy his first car, would have been worth a lot now. I also remember Bayko, a construction kit with metal girders you slid tiles of bricks up, with different roofs you could buy to add to it. We played with it for hours. And tins of toffees with pictures of kittens on the lids. And hanging up Dad’s old rugby socks for Santa; always a tangerine and a couple of walnuts in the toe, with some small presents to keep us occupied till the grownups woke up.
