The first, was Totally Hair Barbie. I don’t remember if her hair actually grew, I think it did, and you could cut and hairstyle it and it was like down to her ankles. I wanted that Barbie so damned bad. My Mom made me get one for my friend for her birthday! I could not handle the jealousy. I’m pretty sure I eventually got one but I had to wait months, which at that age is eternity.
The second was a word processor. I don’t remember the brand, but I’m talking one of those old-school machines that only does word processing, looks vagely like a typewriter with only a partial screen and you can store your data on floppy. When I was twelve years old I wanted one of these more than anything, since I was writing fiction constantly, it’s pretty much all I did as a kid. I saved up for at least a year and finally bought it - I think it was $300 so no small feat for a 12 year old.
And I used the shit out of that thing. It was my dream. I wrote my first (shitty) novel on it at age 17. The only issue is that it soon became obsolete and whatever data was on those floppies has been lost to the annals of history.
For me it was a Big Wheel. My friends on the street had them, and I loved riding it, especially the one with the hand break you could get some speed going, then pull that (was only on one side), and then crank the wheel to the side and spin out all crazy. Eventually, I got too big and heavy, so my parents ended-up getting me my first bicycle - so it probably worked-out for the best.
Tangentially, I also wanted to jump into a ball pit when I was a kid, but never did.
As a 6 or 7 year old boy, my Christmas dream involved 2 toys. The first was a Tonka fire truck. The one I wanted had a tank for water, and a big button on the top that would pressurize the tank and make the water come out of the fire hose. The 2nd toy was also in the Sears catalog: a dollhouse. Not just any dollhouse, this one had 2 stories. Big deal, you say? Odd pick for a boy, you say? Yeah, well, this dollhouse had 2 stories, and was made of wood. Flammable wood. I figured I could set fire to some portion of that house, and put the fire out with the fire truck, at least 20 times before it was all consumed. More, if I did some repairs between fires, using popsicle sticks.
I knew better than to ask, so I never got to play fireman.
My parents were fairly poor when I was little but my grandparents on both sides were not and I was both the first born child and grandchild on both sides so I got basically whatever I wanted. I had a horse, go-kart, dirt bike, BMX bikes, all the guns you could ever want including machine guns with three shooting ranges at our house, a stocked catfish pond, a Commodore 64, video games systems, stereos, my own phone line plus a whole lot more. We had plenty of land to use all of them freely. I never really thought of myself as that fortunate growing up because some of my friends had things like new ATV’s but I suppose I was in that type of way. If my parents didn’t fight constantly and then get divorced, I would probably be more thankful for it.
I wanted a chemistry set and no, I never got it. My parents were more afraid I think that I would make a mess, than actually injuring myself, poisoning myself, or burning the house down. However, my friend got one and we had some fun with it. (hey, I was a nerd – I also did math for fun lol).
I wanted a Tony the Pony, which was a stuffed horse that was big enough to sit on. You kind of bounced up and down and his legs moved out and you could ride across the floor. I suspect I was too big for one by the time I started asking. Anyway, I never got one.
This summer I did a little target shooting while camping. I really enjoyed it, but I only want to kill cans, so…Friday, I get a belated Christmas present from my son.
A Red Ryder!
I desperately wanted a Remco Monkey Helmet for Christmas, but, Santa didn’t come through.
However, I did get it for my 7th birthday!
I geared up with the helmet, canteen and plastic assault rifle (I looked pretty bad-ass in the mirror), then went out into my suburban New Jersey neighborhood to engage in some serious jungle guerrilla warfare. The older kids laughed and called me “monkey boy.”
When I was 9 years old, I desperately wanted one of these. When I pointed this item out to my mother at the toy store, I was promptly informed that it was “gross” and would never be allowed in the house. Apparently, according to that article, she wasn’t the only parent who felt that way. Never ended up getting one, but I was obsessed with the movie for years.
(We were watching the Oscars on TV the year Alien won the award for Best Special Effects, and they showed the “chestburster” scene. I thought it was the most awesome thing ever. However, trying to use this as a reason to get the 18" action figure as a present did not have the desired effect on my mom.)
A couple of years later, I really wanted a copy of the AD&D 1st edition Monster Manual. My mom thought it “looked like junk”, but it ended up under the tree anyway, hidden inside a sweater. I still have my old Monster Manual to this day. I have no idea what happened to the sweater.
