Favorite Childhood Toys

from Jo(e)'s blog: http://writingasjoe.blogspot.com/2006/12/favorite-toys-meme.html

Favorite toys of childhood

1. Ralph, my stuffed, light blue Basset Hound. He had a tag that said he was "Morgan, Junior. TV Star" but I don't remember seeing him on TV. I loved Ralph with a passion that was visible in his missing fur and damaged eyes (the droopy eyes were done partially with felt that eventually wore away). He had a huge squeaker that was most of his muzzle originally. Somehow it migrated into his neck.

2. The sandbox. We had the coolest sandbox. My dad built the sandbox and its lid and filled it with fine white sand. We had a farmset in there, a set of dogs close to the same scale as the farmset animals, and some miscellaneous dinosaurs. It made for some interesting social structures. I confess that there were some caste decisions made on animal color. We weren't supposed to put water in the sandbox because it was wood and my parents were afraid of the bottom rotting out, but we did. You can't build much fun stuff with dry sand. I played in that sandbox until I was 13 or so. I think my parents hauled it off because they thought I was too old to be playing in it.