Toys We Played With In The 1940s.

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We didn't have many toys when I was a child in England in the 1940s. World War 2 was on for half of that decade, and things were scarce, as they were for years afterwards.. A lot of our toys were home made, and we mostly received them at Christmas. My mother used to make us rag dolls and gollywogs out of scraps of material, and we would be so thrilled when we saw them peeping out of our Christmas stockings. When the war was over and Dad was home, he would carve us little wooden boats, and one year he made us a little red chair each with our names on them. I can still remember being awed at actually having my own little chair. Other things we had were colouring books, marbles, yo-yos, and board games like ludo and snakes and ladders. We had comics to read, and when all of the children in our family had read ours, we swopped with the family next door, who had bought a different one. One year one of my sisters got a kaleidoscope and I was so envious. She let me use it sometimes and I was fascinated. My other sister got a teaset, and we would have lots of fun pouring imaginary tea and eating imaginary cakes. We mostly played outside all day, weather permitting, and here our toys were balls, skipping ropes, and a piece of chalk with which to mark out our hopscotch pitch. Some of the older boys would make carts out of an old pair of pram wheels and a crate, with a piece of string to guide it. If we were lucky they sometimes give us little girls a ride. Of course we didn't need any toys for most of our games - hide and seek, tag, leapfrog, and paddling in the brook trying to catch tiddlers. Then there were the singing games like 'ring-o-roses' and 'the farmer wants a wife'. Do children still play games like these? This is a long way from the electronic games and toys that children have today. What sort of toys and games do you remember from your childhood?