Toys of yesteryear.

I haven't achieved much in the creative line recently. No quilting, sewing, knitting, crocheting etc. however I was inspired to make Jake the Pirate, this week.

Jake's hands look a little large!

Joshie attends The British International School and his teacher invited Warren and I to talk to the class about the toys we played with when we were little! Now that's a BIG ask. Do you recall the toys you played with? In my case it is sixty+ years ago!

I do know that when I was little, just ready to start school, we moved to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). My Dad, being a building contractor, enjoyed the challenge of moving to under developed places and to be part of the start up! Wankie (Hwange) was a coal mining centre and needed schools, hospitals a shopping centre and petrol stations and the company he worked for, James Thompson, won several of those contracts! My Dad went ahead into Darkest Africato to get our home ready and we followed months later, on a very long train trip!

Our home in Wankie, Rhodesia.

How wonderful to be out of the city and to be free to play and play and play. I do recall having a bicycle and my Mom being a good seamstress, made our clothes and also ragdolls. I really don't think we had lots of toys or the need for them. When we got home after school, we would be sent outside, into the garden and be told to play! I am sure we used our imaginations a whole lot more than today's children.

I believed in fairies at the bottom of the garden. These notions being fueled by the reading of Enid Blyton stories! Oh how I loved to read and to get lost in the adventures of the Secret Seven and Famous Five! I so wished to be part of their gangs!

Occasionally, for a treat, the family would go up to the Recreational Club for a swim and then we watched the bioscope. A sheet was hung outside as a screen, chairs pulled up and the movie started. It was usually a cowboy and Indian movie and would break down a few times. We didn't mind!

At Joshua's school he is able to visit a library containing 20,000 books! Imagine that. A dream for any child who loves books!

Granny telling the class a story about Jake the Pirate.

I think that some of the toys we played with were spinning tops, skipping ropes, yo yo's, marbles and our home made rag dolls.

It is difficult for the modern children to imagine a world with no cell phones, no T.V., no computers, no I pads but just loads of time and space to have fun!

Life was simple but wonderful.