What toy did you have as a kid - companion to What's your Day Job

[Ljohnsaw]

I found the What's your day job thread pretty interesting.  As one commented, there are a lot of hands-on types on the forum.  Just thought I'd put this out here to see if the toys used as a kid help shape your interest in doing stuff with trees - logging, milling, woodworking etc. - as well as building tools and structures.

Some of these may be before, or after, your "time" ;)  You can vote for multiple items.  The list may be a little biased - I grew up at a time when I was exposed to all of the items.

[Magicman]

Sorry to be a kill-joy, but toys didn't happen.  I was probably happier to get the clothes that I got because I needed them.  There were three boys in my class and we always got about the same thing.  We all could count on getting a couple of boxes of shorts to shoot in our Dad's .22.  We would always brag about how many squirrels that we got before the school bus ran.  Got and cleaned.

[paul case]

I had toy tractors, combines and trucks.

To date
In college i was a cow boy for a couple outfits and even worked a weekend midnite conv. store attendant.
since college i have grown contract meat chickens, had a few hogs,and as many as 100 mama cows on grass Plus cut fescue seed and sell and bale hay.
now I am a baptist pastor of a church about 100 people, sawmill owner/operator, run about 40 mama cows. Not to mention the most important thing Family. Wife and 2 sons. They are first.

PC

[tree-farmer]

I had a stick, it was a very nice stick though.... :D

[Brian_Weekley]

I think many of those toys positively influenced my life.  I started off in engineering (erector sets), graduated in chemistry and work as a chemist (chemistry set), love woodworking (Lincoln logs), I am a cyclist (tinkering with bikes), build and fix various devices (electronic kits), etc...   Curiosity, imagination, and the opportunity to build things is priceless.  I feel sorry for kids who just want to sit in front of a TV and play video games...  :P

[Magicman]

We had no phone and got a TV when I was a senior in HS.  I remember Ed Sullivan and Lawrence Welk.  ;D

[gspren]

I had a stick, it was a very nice stick though.... :D

Depending on my age at the time walking through a woods with a nice stick was about as good as it gets, heck I still like it.

[Chuck White]

My most memorable toys (as a child) were a bicycle and a toboggan, both shared with 8 siblings!  :

Yeh, but those were the days!   ;)   

[Darrel]

My favorite toys were the truck I made with my Dad. We turned the wheels on his Shopsmith lathe.

Later in life I ran moulders in the Lincoln Log factory. Did you know that Lincoln logs are 0.710" thick?

[GrizG]

Different "toys" at different ages... About age 11 or so I got a hatchet. The kid next door found his father's old Boy Scout hatchet and the two of us played lumberjack cutting down 4"-6" trees simply for the joy of cutting down trees. Shortly after that I got a Boy Scout hatchet and axe, both made by Plumb. I still have them and made new leather sheathes for them last year. 

BB guns and slingshots were favorites too. Regarding slingshots, I still have my mid to late 1960s vintage Wham-O Sportsman slingshot. A couple years ago I made 25 copies of it and have been giving them away to friends, family, and for gun club raffles.  It is amazing how many of the older guys' eyes light up when they see them. Many call them by name, "Wham-O Sportsman!"  I've got a lot of ash in my lumber shed and I am tempted to make a lot more slingshots after I mill all the flooring I need for my house. 

Regarding Lincoln Logs, I still have my set from 1962. When my sons were little I made 100s of additional logs for them... this as i was always frustrated as a kid to not have enough!

[Grizzly]

My earliest memories are of Tonka truck and loader in the sandbox by the huge old cedar stump. Many hours building roads and yards and many other scenarios. Later folks started buying lego and that consumed my time till after I was working jobs. Dad and Mom grew up very poor and felt they wanted to provide better for their children and thus I didn't have any "old" bikes or such to fix as they really enjoyed the fact that they could buy us new stuff. So I got my fix when I got into big rigs.

[LeeB]

I f I say what I want to I'll get sent to the woodshed.  :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   Kind of like MM. Toys were not a big issue at our house. I do have big yellow stuffed rabbit I got somewhere along the line. The wires came out of his ears so they droop now but were once erect. I remember him more as a pillow than a toy.

   Bull Durham tobacco sacks and Prince Albert tobacco cans were highly prized as were Grandma's snuff box cans.

   I remember getting BB guns and making slingshots out of old inner tubes. I got a 20 gauge shotgun when I was 7 but I was probably 9-10 before I could use it by myself. I took over a little .22 Stevens pump .22 rifle and used it more than anything else. Also I remember fishing at local gravel lakes and ox bow lakes up in the woods where I would ride my bike down there 2-3 miles away and fish.

[51cub]

My toys all just kind of came and went. If I wasn't doing something with my father, I was probably playing with my pets

[Kbeitz]

I best remember my erector sets. I now have 70+ sets of them...



 

[Furu]

Like MM not really any toys that were not made from the world around you. Sticks, hay bales, mud etc.

Clothes were what  I got most but I did get "my" first dogs. 
I say "my" because they were mine.

Family had dogs but the one I mention were mine and all my responsibility.  Dogs teach a kid a lot of responsibility while having fun.  Toys just don't do that.
First a Beagle for rabbits then a German Shorthair pointer.
Can't call dogs toys but I played, worked and lived with them more than any kid could ever use or play with a toy.
Never will ever forget those dogs.

I will never forget any of my dogs. 

In response to the OP query: I am what I am today because of dogs and how they shaped me.

[Delawhere Jack]

Best Christmas gift ever was a Remington #4 1/2 Rolling Block in 22LR when I was 5. Dad made a small stock for it and put a scope on it. Tinkertoys, RadioShack crystal radio kits, and such. Inherited the chemistry bench from my 4 older brothers. All the really cool stuff had been removed after my oldest brother made nitroglycerin in the basement with the kid next door. I was limited to copper sulfate, sulfur, baking soda and such.... Did manage to produce hydrogen by putting scraps of zinc in a flask with hydrochloric acid. Used a match to see if it was really hydrogen gas coming out....  :

[Briankinley2004]

Fishing poles and guns weren't on the list but that's what we usually asked for. I got a 20 gauge when I was about 10. It was a single barerel. Used to take to school with me and no one batted an eye. My how the world has changed as the darkness tries to overcome the light.

[Briankinley2004]

Best Christmas gift ever was a Remington #4 1/2 Rolling Block in 22LR when I was 5. Dad made a small stock for it and put a scope on it. Tinkertoys, RadioShack crystal radio kits, and such. Inherited the chemistry bench from my 4 older brothers. All the really cool stuff had been removed after my oldest brother made nitroglycerin in the basement with the kid next door. I was limited to copper sulfate, sulfur, baking soda and such.... Did manage to produce hydrogen by putting scraps of zinc in a flask with hydrochloric acid. Used a match to see if it was really hydrogen gas coming out....  :

Jack did you ever try to light your own flatulence?  That was another science experience we did besides dissolving pennies in a Pitre dish

[thecfarm]

Nothing to do with any job I ever had. Legos was my thing that I remember. Bikes too. I tried not to have no more than one wheel on the ground at a time.  ;D

[Babylon519]

I remember the Tonka toys and Big Bruiser tow truck I got in my early years. But my most special 'toy' was a toolbox put together by my grandfather that kept growing as I grew. It probably started when I was about 8, and he used his router to make me a wooden nameplate for my bike that said "Jason". Thereafter, whenever I visited I wanted Grampa to take me to his workshop (not the woodshed!) and let me help him build stuff. My little toolbox was made up of old tools Grampa had broken or outgrown -  I clearly remember a little hand plane that fit my wee hand so well. I would take it apart and put it back together while he was working at some task or other. Throughout my childhood, I took these skills back home and built things: go-karts, forts, treehouses, even made a mast and sail for my bicycle that harnessed the wind - and it worked!
   It all changed when I started driving and got a '69 VW. That's when I started buying my own tools, and most were not for woodworking, but for auto mechanics. If I couldn't fix that Beetle, I couldn't drive it. Necessity was the mother of my tool accumulation.
   Today, I still have all my Grampa's tools, big and little. I still have and use every tool I purchased for auto repair. And I recently followed a dream and got a 35' sailboat. Who says the things we discover in childhood don't shape our lives?!       - Jason

[Howdy]

It was a dark and stormy night...
But that's another story.  I have few memories of my childhood after being passed around from one foster home to another for years.  Mom was mentally ill and Dad was always somewhere out to sea being a Merchant Marine.  What toys I did have were lost with each relocation. 

But I do remember one Christmas when I received an electric train set.  That year was a cold winter and as we were living at a subsistence level there was little extra for anything that didn't keep us alive. My train set consisted of an oval of three rail track, several cars and I set it up next to the wood stove in the kitchen.

The electricity was out which was a common occurrence and the water pipes had frozen and burst so there was several inches of ice across the floor, something the wood stove had no effect on.  No matter however I pushed the train around and around having the time of my life until the police came and relocated me to another foster home.  I felt that was one of the best Christmas in my life. 

[21incher]

We always had food on the table, but not many toys. The best toys I had were broken things that I would pick up when we visited the local dump. It was always fun to find something that had parts that could be used to build something else. Then I found you could stuff match heads in a empty co2 cartridge from the dump use a old birthday candle from the used but still usable candle jar to make a little bomb.  I got a whooping for that one after my mother heard it. Then she felt bad and got me a red Ryder from the S&H green stamp store that went everywhere with me for years. 

[Darrel]

21incher, now you're talkin, S&H Green Stamps. Had so much fun licking and sticking then going to the Green Stamp store. Life was good if only for a day!

[GrizG]

We had Triple-S Blue Stamps around here... there was a redemption store near the grocery store. Many businesses gave the stamps with purchases including the gas stations. Seems like 100 years ago... but really only about 50!   lol lol lol

[Furu]

I actually still have some green stamps in a upstairs drawer that never got used.   
Wonder what ever happened to the program.  Think it went away while I was overseas back in the 80's

[LeeB]

Anybody remember what the name of the brown ones were?

[LeeB]

Found it with a little google searching. They were Gold Bond. My mom and grand mother collected both.

[Ljohnsaw]

I remember sticking the Blue Chip stamps in books and looking at the catalog of what you could get.   There were the little stamps and the big (5x? ones).  What were they, $1 and $5 spent?  Back then, my Mom had about $25 a week to feed a family of 9! Don't remember anything good in the catalog (for a kid).  We had a few of the Green stamps but never enough to fill a book.

[Kbeitz]

Anybody remember what the name of the brown ones were?

Gold bond stamps ?

[LeeB]

Yep, Gold Bond.

[petefrom bearswamp]

What a great trip down memory lane.
Had a knock off of an erector set called a build o , a small chemistry set and an electric train set but I cant remember what make.
All shared with my brother.
My favorite experiment with the chem set was burning sulphur much to moms displeasure.
3 square meals a day, clothes on our backs and a bed to sleep in with my brother.
Got TV in 53, telephone the next year when I was a  senior.

[pineywoods]

I recall one wind-up toy when I was 5, otherwise I learned to make my own toys. Dad wisely allowed complete access to his meager tool box with 2 enforced rules. Put the tool back when done and don't touch his supply of new nails. We built trucks, forts, tree houses, anything small boys could dream up. The nearby city trash dump was a treasure trove of supplies. Today, my siblings and I still build whatever we need or want, just a bit more sophisticated than the small boy stuff, but we do have better tools. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Piney,

   That reminded me my 2 brothers and I built what we called our shack out of boards and nails we got from Dad's monument business. The granite had complete or partial crates we'd dismantle. We even got an old wood heater from somewhere we put in there. We had a hatchet we acquired from somewhere and would cut small trees and limbs for heater wood. I remember we cut a 6-8 inch oak one time and the grapevines held it up at about a 45 degree angle so my older brother handed me the hatchet and told me to climb up there and cut them down. I did. He forgot to mention what was going to happen when I cut that last one. It was a pretty interesting ride for a few seconds there.

[Darrel]

There was this sapling Doug fir that my older brother and I climbed up as high as we could and got the thing to swinging back and forth as hard as we could.  We were probably up about 10' from the ground and the poor thing broke off just below our feet. The ride down was fun, hanging on to that tree top for dear life, I landed on top of him.

[Grizzly]

Glad to see I wasn't the only little brother that got snookered by the older ones. But it's ok, I got even.  ;D

[Darrel]

Sounds like there's a story here Grizzly.

[Grizzly]

Not much of one Darrel. I'm the youngest of 5 children 2 of whom were older brothers. Their 10 & 7 years older but the oldest one hardly knew me. The other was learning wrestling in high school and learned that gullible me was a good monkey to test and learn on. I suffered for some years and then one day after he'd gotten me in some kind of scissor hold where I couldn't breathe anymore I wondered about my way outta this one. Well I just held out........he waited and waited for me to say "uncle" but I held out. He got kinda panicky when my face started to go blue and he decided I could be the winner!! So I found a way even if I was the little target. I also worked for a time packing drywall and my body took on quite a muscle bound appearance with some healthy weight gain. All my brothers and BIL found out they couldn't push me anymore. Didn't even want to arm wrestle. That was the best get even ever!

[Kbeitz]

You all might get a laugh out of this. I still have my pedal car from years ago.
In the first picture is the pedal car when it was my cousins.  After that it was
passed on to my older brother. After everyone was done beating the tar out of
it then it was mine. Years later it ended up in the farm dump. I found it in the
weeds and put it in the barn where it sat for many years. The wheels was rusted
off and it was in bad shape. One day I though I better do something with it or
it will end up back in the trash. I ended up putting a 4hp Briggs engine under the
hood. Now I take it to car shows.



 



 

[Don_Papenburg]

Wow that is a fancy car.  I got a red 400 farmall for my birthday as a young lad.  still have it .  One of the best toys I got was not a toy nor mine , but I was home the day my dad got his Forney welder.  It came out of the old Chevy step van of Ralph Rinkenburger He made a living selling to farmers all over Illinois .  He gave me a helmet with a stick to hold it for watching the welding .  Anyway in a few years my dad had me welding stuff for him .   I always asked for a truck for Christmas whenI was little before I was in  school . Ended up with 7 trucks in my fleet . I got a couple for my birthday also .  Still have all but my first one .  they all have a lot of miles on them and all need recaps.
My Godparents got me American Bricks for my birthday .  I built and toredown thousands of brick buildings before I was in third grade.

[Kbeitz]

This is a picture of me and my dad. Also in the picture you can see the same pedal
car as I got it after everyone else was done with it. No wheels. No steering wheel.
Guessing the picture was taken around 55 years ago.