1st April, 2009 - Toys I Remember #8

My mate Vincent from across the road was quite the best person that I could possibly have been pals with when I was at Primary School. His upbringing was quite unconventional. His dad was a minister at the local church, and held quite astonishingly good Christian values to the point where he seemed to donate all of his income and most of his time to helping the poor and underprivileged. When I look back at him and his family, it seems to me that they really were good people.

But the reason that this is important to this retrospective on toys is that Vincent – who was my best pal for many years – did not own a television set and lived in a cold and dusty old manse, and there I played and played and played for years.

And Vincent - probably now that I think of it partly because of restricted means in the household – used to invent games of astonishing imagination and complexity. The one that springs ro mind now is his athletics board game which I can see still in my mind’s eye – with its race track; its shot putt are; the javelin; the discus (with a rotating spinning pointer). He had rules for everything from how to clear a hurdle to what constituted a foul throw in the hammer.
There was so much imagination. I hope my kids meet someone like him and are not wholly seduced by the world of electronic gadgetry.