When Toys were for boys

[Freija]

As a kid of five, my Mom and Dad got me a really nice Hopalong Cassidy leather holsters and twin six shooters. White pearl handels and chrome/silver frames.  And they shot Caps, the rolled red ribbons of gunpowder dots that the little pistols fired, so they were very 'neat-o' toys. Then we discovered Girls....

Well this stirs up some weird vague memories…

I’m guessing at about the same age circa 1959 or 1960-ish, back when my folks were still trying to do what they could to encourage me to be more like other boys, I got something similar… a holster with two cap guns and a cowboy hat. I remember seeing a photo of me dressed up in this outfit more than I actually remember ever having or playing with this stuff. It wasn’t really my deal although I do remember my older cousin Brenda and I playing with rolls of caps a few times. She was kind of a pyro.

I would have much rather played house and dress up than cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians and have tea parties with my dolls and stuffed animals. Eventually my folks got the message.

I loved my babies! Sixty plus years later and I still have the dolly in this picture. What kind of mom would abandon her child?  



By the time I was 8 or so, I had a collection of Barbies and got an E-Z Bake Oven for Christmas one year. I also had a ton of Dam Dolls (trolls) but lost them all over time. Original ones are worth a good penny these days.



I never played with guns or trucks or had those little green Army men. Come to think of it, I never had or wanted boy's toys. It probably doesn't mean anything anyway, right?