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March 15, 2011

What's Old is New Again

I’m a sucker for nostalgia.

I love seeing the reintroduction of some of my favorite toy lines from my childhood. It’s so much fun to be greeted by old familiar faces like Strawberry Shortcake and the Smurfs as I venture into the toy store. And I often have to will myself away from those faded out tees with retro advertisements (they wouldn’t match my yoga pants).

I still have a lot of the toys I had as a child. Once upon a time I envisioned my children playing with them…but, at least right now, that thought gives me the heebie-jeebies. I have no idea what the CPSC regulations were 30 years ago, and for all I know the girls could contract lead poisoning from merely shuffling through my retro deck of Go Fish cards.

No, I’ll keep those goodies safely boxed in the garage for now, but I may just give into some of the newer versions of classic toys.

One of my bestest girlfriends gave the girls a couple of retro toys for their birthday last year, this dog, and a pull-along (rotary dial) telephone. I don’t know that she was going for nostalgia, per se, as much as she was searching for a couple of toys that weren’t battery-operated. (She’s heard one too many of my soap box rants, I think…)


I think these pull toys actually pre-date me, as I don’t recall having either of them myself, but I still love the looks of them. And the girls didn’t know Old from New, Nostalgic from Innovative…but they had a lot of fun playing with their new pretties.

Fast forward 8 or 10 months, as those toys had found their way into the “reserve” bin. In theory I cycle the girls’ toys in and out of the den on a regular basis, but I don’t always do such a great job.

Viola! Last week the girls fell in love with these gems all over again! And, of course, today they’re playing with them in a much different way.

They actually pretend to take their dog on a walk. They talk about their puppy's leash and his collar, and they have fun introducing their baby dolls to the dog on a regular basis (as apparently their dolls have very short-term memories).

This little exercise is a reminder to me that it is important to rotate the girls’ toys more often. It definitely keeps things interesting for them, and encourages them to find new ways to play with their toys.

And it’s a fun little experiment in nostalgia, too...

If 10 months to them is like 15 years to me…they must be enjoying the throwback to simpler times…when Mommy cut up all their food and they weren’t expected to climb the stairs themselves.

Aaahhh...the good old days!

7 comments:

Mandy said...

Oh I love it. I'm a sucker for all the old toys! I would desperate love to get them the trotting dog that I had but apparently it wasn't popular enough to bring back!

I must admit I'm terrible about switching the toys in and out the older the girls get. I have instead embraced the layout of our house. We rotate playing in their room, the living room, and the family room. Each with their own stash of toys. Apparently the best toys are in the family room because they are always so excited to go downstairs and make a break for it whenever I go to switch out laundry.

Quadmama said...

It's fun to see my daughters get a kick out of the things I liked (Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony) but I'm boycotting the attempted comeback of Rainbow Bright. The new doll has synthetic hair. All the Rainbow Bright dolls (and friends) had yarn hair. I'm protesting.

Andrea said...

I love it too! Molly got a strawberry shortcake for Christmas this year that I smell everytime she plays with her! I love that strawberry smell! Brings back so many memories! I watched the smurfs every weekend! Good old times!

That is too/sweet cute about the puppies! I need to start recycling toys, but I usually just donate them. I need a bigger house!

Unknown said...

I used to rotate out old toys when the kids were younger too...now that we have a big play room, that doesn't really happen anymore sine there is a "place" for most of their things vs just having it all in the living room before.

I am excited to weed out some of our toys and sell them soon in a Mom 2 Mom sale. Its tough having kids at 2 different ages when you want to keep toys to a minimum. For one...everyone generously gives BOTH twins a toy as well as Adam...we have '4 year old' toys and '2 year old' toys. Most of the time, Adam plays with the older kid toys anyways so I debate whether to just get rid of the younger toys...but then I feel like I'm depriving him of those things if I take them away too soon...but the vast amount of toys we have is ridiculous!

As for the nostalgia...I'm loving seeing Sarah get excited about Strawberry Shortcake (Loved that smell!) and My Little Pony. :-)

reanbean said...

I don't have many of my old toys saved, but I did manage to hang onto my beloved Care Bear (Birthday Bear). I was very good about keeping my favorite toys in good condition, and this particular bear looks brand new. So for the kids' 3rd birthday, I gave them my Birthday Bear and a Bedtime Bear that I picked up so we'd have two. For the first day, Tiny carried Birthday Bear around all day. Then I mentioned that it was my favorite as a kid, and she's had nothing to do with it since. :o( She said she wanted her own and didn't want to share mine. I tried explaining that it's all hers now, but it hasn't made much different. So, I've put the bears away again (not that either kid has noticed), hoping that when I bring them out again in a few months or so, they'll get a fresh start. We'll see...

Marcia (123 blog) said...

Hey, where's my comment?

I had a strange feeling it bombed out on me (had about 10 tabs open last night) so I came back to check.

DARN!

I don't possess a single thing from my childhood. Literally nothing.

My friend showed me books and some toys that she had when a little girl that her girls are now using - it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sweet!

Rebecca said...

We have those dogs...a blue one and a pink one (of course). The Crazies love them! GG found a bunch of retro toys from FAO Schwartz and gave them to us...they're awesome!