Childhood present spinoff: what did you want that your parents wouldn't buy you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My light brite was passed down from my 3 older siblings. I used to beg for the replacement patterns so that I could make the designs shown on the box. There were zero patterns left by the time I got it (and many many pegs missing too). My parents told me no because my creativity was free.

This made me laugh, and then cry a little, because I got the exact same BS from my parents. They wouldn't let me have coloring books, because in the 70s, we were supposed to be discouraged from "coloring inside the lines". I just had a roll of butcher paper, and whatever assortment of blobby pens, highlighters, and half-crayons my mother could scrounge up.

Hey, your parents may have been right. I babysat for three boys whose mom wouldn't let them have coloring books either, just lots of blank paper and colored pencils. All three became successful comic book illustrators!

[Anonymous]

Well, I had both an EZ Bake Oven and a Lite Brite. Then I decided to creatively mix the two. I melted all my Lite Brite pegs into beautiful, colorful plastic cakes in my EZ Bake Oven.

That was pretty much the end of both toys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My light brite was passed down from my 3 older siblings. I used to beg for the replacement patterns so that I could make the designs shown on the box. There were zero patterns left by the time I got it (and many many pegs missing too). My parents told me no because my creativity was free.

This made me laugh, and then cry a little, because I got the exact same BS from my parents. They wouldn't let me have coloring books, because in the 70s, we were supposed to be discouraged from "coloring inside the lines". I just had a roll of butcher paper, and whatever assortment of blobby pens, highlighters, and half-crayons my mother could scrounge up.

Hey, your parents may have been right. I babysat for three boys whose mom wouldn't let them have coloring books either, just lots of blank paper and colored pencils. All three became successful comic book illustrators!

Alas, it's a good theory, but I can't draw worth a damn! When my daughter asks me to draw something for her, I'm all "how about a... house!" Then she takes the crayon from me and decorates my sad little stick drawings.

[Anonymous]

I desperately wanted an Easy Bake Oven, but I can't blame my parents for not buying it. I never told them I wanted it; I just lusted after it in my heart.

Forty years later, still no Easy Bake Oven, but we have two snow cone makers--Snoopy and Dora. God, I hate those things!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't remember a Sears catalog, but I remember the JC Penney catalog. I would flip from page to page and write down what I wanted.

I'd forgotten about Cabbage Patch Kids! I wanted one, too, and instead I got a "Cabbage Patch Kid" that my grandmother's neighbor had made for me. I was so disappointed...her face was cloth instead of plastic. It was so big, it could wear my old baby clothes. I named it Elizabeth Anne and it's still in my old room at my parents' house.

My mom's friend made three like that for two of my sisters and I. There must have been a McCall's pattern for them. I can't remember what I named mine, probably Helen or Louise, but I love that you named yours after me.

I went to college with a girl who was family friends with the guy who created Cabbage Patch dolls (before he sold and made a fortune). She had one sitting on her bed... it was not the cutest thing - cloth face and all. She said she could get me one, but I was a broke college student, and my dad wouldn't give me the money to get one. Fast forward, the creator sold to Mattel (or whoever), and that original one would have been worth a small fortune. Oh well.

From Wikipedia
"The dolls attracted the attention of toy manufacturer Coleco, who began mass-production in 1982.[6] The Coleco Cabbage Patch Kids had large, round vinyl heads, (originally of a different, hard plastic), and soft fabric bodies, and were produced from 1982–1989, many at a factory in Amsterdam, New York. After Coleco went bankrupt, the Cabbage Patch Kids were later mass produced by other companies, including Hasbro, Mattel, Toys R Us, and currently Play Along. Mattel started producing them after cancelling production of My Child dolls.

At the peak of their popularity the dolls were a must-have toy for Christmas.[7][8] Parents across the United States flocked to stores to try to obtain one of the Cabbage Patch Kids for their children, with fights occasionally erupting between parents over the hard-to-find dolls. In later years, Coleco introduced variants on the original Cabbage Patch Kids, and derivatives of the original line of dolls continued to be marketed. Hailey Theeuwen was the first known Cabbage Patch doll."

PP here with the college friend. Just googled up and found the creator/inventor's name: Xavier Roberts. (I was in college in Ohio back in 1981-1983.)

Also from Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Roberts :
Xavier Roberts (born October 31, 1955, Cleveland, Georgia), the inventor and manufacturer of Cabbage Patch Kids, is an American artist and businessman. During the American Folk art movement of the late 1970s[ambiguous], Roberts observed several techniques involving the making of dolls from various materials. Influenced by the quilts that his mother, Eula, made, he began experimenting with a quilted doll. After much experimentation, Roberts created a type of doll he called "Little People". Roberts and a small group of friends began to travel from state to state in the southeastern U.S. attending folk art exhibitions. At these exhibitions, Roberts began selling these handcrafted dolls he called "babies". Going into business as Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc., Roberts started producing Little People in his hometown of Cleveland, at a converted medical clinic, which he rechristened "Babyland General Hospital". The Little People evolved by 1982 into Cabbage Patch Kids, which quickly became a major toy fad. In 1984 alone, 20 million dolls were bought, and by 1999, 95 million had been sold worldwide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My light brite was passed down from my 3 older siblings. I used to beg for the replacement patterns so that I could make the designs shown on the box. There were zero patterns left by the time I got it (and many many pegs missing too). My parents told me no because my creativity was free.

This made me laugh, and then cry a little, because I got the exact same BS from my parents. They wouldn't let me have coloring books, because in the 70s, we were supposed to be discouraged from "coloring inside the lines". I just had a roll of butcher paper, and whatever assortment of blobby pens, highlighters, and half-crayons my mother could scrounge up.

Hey, your parents may have been right. I babysat for three boys whose mom wouldn't let them have coloring books either, just lots of blank paper and colored pencils. All three became successful comic book illustrators!

Alas, it's a good theory, but I can't draw worth a damn! When my daughter asks me to draw something for her, I'm all "how about a... house!" Then she takes the crayon from me and decorates my sad little stick drawings.

I'm the OP on this string. It is a very good theory, but didn't work out in my case. I have about zero creativity. If given a blank sheet of paper and crayons, I would have found something else to occupy my time. Hence, I never used the light brite.

[Anonymous]

There were a lot of toys. I remember anticipating the JcPenney toy catalog and picking out all the toys that I wanted.

I never got an American Girl Doll, I wanted one for several years, from the time I was about 6.

Easy Bake Oven

Pretty sure I wanted Cabbage Patch Dolls too.

A big dollhouse

An art kit (a really nice one that came in a wooden case)

What were the little keychain electronic pets that you had to feed and take care of? I don't remember the name of them


My parents never got us much for Christmas, and never invested in the popular toys. They were very much the "you make your own fun" kind of parents. I did grow up with a very big imagination and a lot of creativity although I still wished for some of the above toys.

[Anonymous]

I wanted the Barbie Dream House or the Barbie pool. I didn't get either - I wanted them for years. I had a great large dollhouse and I'm sure that's why I never got the Dream House - although I never asked why.

My good friends had the Dream House - so I would go over and play with their barbie toys and they would come over and play with my dollhouse.

[Anonymous]

Tammy's.little.sister.Pepper.