Recently, I read five decades of childhood obsession written by Oxford Open Learning which deeply interested me. I can totally relate to it! I still remember my first bike (BMX), playing with marbles and so much more.
To join in this project, I made my list of 10 craze items from my playground days. Born in the late 70s, these are what I played with.
1. Playground
In Singapore, land is scarce, so there are so many high rise building. The majority of people live in flats and have common playgrounds to share between 6 or so blocks of flats. This is an example of how they looked like! The one in our block of flats was much smaller than this one though.
2. Barbie
She is my favourite! I used to have two Barbie dolls but not Ken. My parents refused to buy me Ken as they didn’t want to encourage boys at that age. I was always told to avoid boys until I finished my university.
3. Smurfs
We had a huge collections of Smurfs figurines, with at least 40 of them, and unfortunately one day my mum decided we had enough and threw everything away. We were so sad and I remember we cried so much and hated my mum.
4. Care Bears
They are so popular in the 80s. There were soft toys, TV shows, clothing and shoes.
5. Nintendo
We had never have one before but every Saturday we would go to our grandparents’ house to play. Between us cousins, we were always fighting to see who would play Super Mario! Love those days.
6. Chinese Jump Rope
The rope is made from rubber bands, you can read more here. I was really good at jumping across but I don’t think I can do this now. I am getting too old!
7. Five stones
In the olden days, people used what they found on the road and they invented this game. In my generation, the ‘stones’ were had made from triangular cloth bags filled with rice/seed. The game is to throw and catch it without dropping on the ground.
8. Marbles
They are all round favourite! Marbles used to be very expensive and some days you could lose all your marbles(!) I used to buy the colourful marbles to keep.
9. Old Maid Card
If you don’t want to be an old maid, don’t be the last person to hold on the card!
10. BMX
My first bike was a BMX. They were the most popular type of bikes back in those days and everyone was so proud to own one.
So what were your childhood toys?
I had Smurfs figures & I played with them for hours on end. Was never into Barbie, I preferred football & climbing trees 🙂 x
I had Barbie and Ken, but my favourite was Sindy, I had everything Sindy you could get I think! I loved marbles too, was always having competitions with my brother. Holly Hobbit was my favourite ragdoll. Happy memories
I was cuddly toy mad, and had about 300 teddies at one point, I have always collected things so ornaments, cd’d and other nic naks!
I loved my Barbies! I had a Sega Megadrive although, friends had the Nintendo and I loved playing Mario!
I loved my Barbies too and Care Bears…My youngest loves Care bears now too…She watches the Cartoons 🙂