Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Nostalgia

I know it's been awhile, but I'm back...

So, while I was getting the girls ready for bed tonight my husband was searching the internet for an old Winnie the Pooh toy he received when he was three.  He found it, along with the entirety of the 1975 Sears Wishbook.  I'm already thinking about what we'll give the girls for Christmas, and his discovery threw me back to childhood Christmases.  I remember how excited my sisters and I were each year when the Wishbook arrived in the mail.  We would usually argue over who got to look at it first.  When my mother came home from work on that day, she would tell us to make our list.  Each of us was allowed to pick out $100 worth of presents.  Once the lists were made, we could tell Santa what it was that we wanted (from Sears).  There was always so much that I wanted.  I would spend long hours looking, and looking again, circling one toy, crossing out another, going back to it.  Eventually, I would figure out what it was that I most wanted.

This foray into the past inspired me with what I really want this year, and perhaps St. Nicholas will bring it to me.  When I was six years old, I had tubes put in my ears.  While in the hospital, I received two stuffed animals (a turtle and a cat) and the Strawberry Shortcake Berry Go Round game.  I kept all of them into my 20s.  My older nieces and nephews even enjoyed playing with the game.  I loved this game.  It was beat up and the cards were bent, but it still provided much enjoyment.  Sadly, I lost this game when my parents' house was flooded during Hurricane Katrina.  I spent a bit of time searching unsuccessfully for it online shortly after the hurricane in hopes of replacing it.  At the time, I had no idea what it was called and I failed to find it with keyword searches. Tonight, however, I found it fairly quickly, and once I knew the name, I found several buying options on Ebay.  Most are missing pieces, but not all.   So, perhaps I'll find a vintage game under my stocking this year and relive some of the childhood magic of Christmas, and I'll have a new game to play with the kids, too.