March of the Retro Toys

by Eva Pasco, author of "Underlying Notes"

Just as we’d dashed through the snow o’er the hills of adolescence in the Sixties, my sister and I entertained visions of sugarplums in anticipation of the toys we wanted for Christmas.  Whether cruising the aisles of Sears Roebuck in Providence during its heyday when the store giant boasted an entire wing for toys, or the entire floor of American Toy Co. in Pawtucket, we composed our lists and checked them twice before rattling off items from memory, sitting on Santa’s knee.  The forward march of Marx, Ideal, Remco, and Mattel had begun in earnest.

Easy Bake Oven- amazing how the oven bulb actually baked a chocolate cake fit for consumption.

Miss Echo- who needed to pull the string on Chatty Cathy for verbage, when you could record your own voice and hear it back.

My sister had a collection of five inch tall Trolls which she lined up along the backseat of the car—on her side of the imaginary boundary line we drew to delineate our territorial rights.

In retrospect, Retro toys were not that exciting, but somehow marching them out during the holiday season reminds us how imagination is the spark of fun, entertainment, and adventure.

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