Ghost of Christmas Toys Past
by Growing up in the 60s, the toys we wanted pale in comparison to the high-tech wizardry that goes into toys today but the toys back then required more imagination and creativity. I think kids were smarter back then—not as savvy as kids today, but smarter and perhaps more practical.
Next to Christmas, birthdays, summer vacation, Halloween and Thanksgiving, another day that kids looked forward to was either the day the Sears’ Christmas or “wish” catalog came out or the day you got to meet Santa Claus to tell him what you wanted that year. In my case it was both—as soon as my Mom had that catalog it was never out of my sight and as for meeting the heavy set man in red, I starting pestering mom to take me to see him from mid November. Growing up in the 60s, the toys we wanted pale in comparison to the high-tech wizardry that goes into toys today but the toys back then required more imagination and creativity. I think kids were smarter back then—not as savvy as kids today, but smarter and perhaps more practical.
And when it came to our toys, we had some cool ones that’s for sure.
Tinker Toys/Lincoln Logs
Back in the 1950s and 1960s Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs were standard issue toys when it came time for Christmas. Almost everyone I knew had one or the other and if you were from Illinois, “The Land of Lincoln”—those Lincoln Logs were all the more appropriate for kids. Tinker Toys were just cool, I mean in a time before Lego, Tinker Toys ruled. Likewise, there was just something cool about toys made of wood, you know? I can still remember that sweet smell of wood when you opened cylindrical-shaped tub the Tinker Toys came in.
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