Friday, September 11, 2015

Toy Loan

You may ask, what ever is a 'Toy Loan'?  Not 'is', but 'was'.  During the 'great depression' many children were not blessed with Toy's.  Those who had toys, and no longer needed them, donated them to a local 'Toy Loan'.  Just like you go to the Library and check out books to read, then return them, this was a place where a child without Toys could go and look at all the offerings and decide what they would like to have for a few days to play with.  Anything that was checked out had to be returned in a number of days.  I had to be in good condition and clean for the next child to have for a time.  It was so much fun to check the shelves each week to see what was there.  As things were rotated every week, it made the choices quite a joy to so many whose parent couldn't afford to buy things.

I didn't find my home was lacking in things, but I will admit that we, my brothers and I, didn't have an over abundance of toys around.  Christmas was the time for such things, and even then there was not a lot under the tree.  Our parents made sure that we had every needful thing.  I don't remember feeling as if I had been 'left out' in any way.

Today the children have an over abundance of so many things and with the High Tech products that are in every hand, it appears they have little chance to find themselves like we did way back then.  So up comes the questions? What was it like before Television?  Well there was plenty of daylight and we had so many friends in the neighborhood that we played outside until it got dark, or our favorite Radio Program came on.  How did you get around?  We walked everywhere.  Why not, the streets were safe, and everyone was doing it.  What you may ask?  No cars?  Well of course there were cars, but surprising at it may seem - why use them when the weather was good, town wasn't that far away and walking gave us all a chance to 'stretch our legs'.  Or as Dad use to tell us: "come on kids let's
shake a leg".  If we shopped while we were up town, there was plenty of us to carry the packages back home.  We thought nothing of it.  How lucky can you get!

How did we fill the time, and believe me there was plenty of it, we used our 'imagination'.  We played house, school, office or what ever came into our heads to imagine.  Personally I was a dress designer - making outfits for my paper dolls.  Used what ever was handy to make our 'make believe'
places to play in.  There was nothing as fun as making up something and then spending hours being who ever or what ever you thought up.  Today the children or so 'hooked up' to something they are not using their brains to develop life around them.  Rather they shut out every good thing around.  Something you would never heard expressed out of our mouths was the words: "I'm bored".
Lands we didn't have enough time to be bored.  Too much to think up to do.  Too many objects to turn into 'make believe'.

I believe I have mentioned before about Tuna Cans being turned into headlights for the boys home made scooters.  Canned Milk Cans to be hammered around our shoes to make stilts that clanked on the Sidewalk as we clomped along on unsteady legs.  Now that was really FUN.  How many homes did it take to make a play box of old clothes, shoes and purses to Play House?  Now that really took imagination.

I guess you could say that we were too busy to know that things were'nt 'grand'.  Everyone was in the same financial condition.  Moms didn't work, they were home when the kids came and went.  That changed when the Second World War began.  Until then we had a very regular way of life.  We didn't envy anyone else.  We just used what we had and didn't give it a thought that there could be any other way of doing things.  When you are using your imagination, you are too occupied to have other things on your mind.  There were others not as well off, but we didn't have TV to tell us things were any different any place else.  Radio did have news, but we never listen to it, we were waiting to hear what the Lone Ranger and Tonto were up to.  We waited to hear the trials of Elery Queen and what he was about or what the Shadow was solving.  We went to the Movies and then looked forward to hearing them replayed on Lux Radio Theatre.  There was always and Fiber McGee and Molly to listen to and wait for the Closet door to open and have everything come crashing to the floor.  Yes, those were the days.  Wouldn't take a Million for those days.  Hate to think all that todays children have missing by not having to: "make it do, or do without".  We may not have had it posh, but we did have it "our way". If we could think it, we could bring it into the light of day and enjoy every minute of it.  What a lucky bunch we were and are.  We leaned that 'life is what you make it'.  If you think it, you can do it. There wasn't time to be bored.  We hated the end of each day because it meant we had to stop having FUN.

No we didn't have a lot of things, but we enjoyed the things we did have.  We weren't worried about what someone else had that was different.  In fact, if someone had a break, we all thought it was great.  No keeping up with Jones' back then.  We learned thrift, we learned how to take care of things.  We shared bedrooms, one bath to a house and laundry was done each week, hung on a line, taken down folded or dampened down to be ironed.  No drip dry for us.  Some things were starched so that they were stiff and looked right when they were worn.  Just to think about it brings back such wonderful memories.  We never miss what we never had, so todays generations haven't a clue as to how it is really done.  Times may change and lessons may have to be learned on how to really do it.  I'm grateful that I had the days and times to do just that.  Grateful for the 'Toy Loan' and what it added to my young life.  What I didn't understand then, has become so beautifully clear to me and appreciated now.

Written this 11th day of September 2015
By: Eileen C Rosenberg

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