When thinking about my childhood toys I was reminded of the many happy hours I spent with my friend Liz playing with our Sindy and Barbie dolls. We made clothes, invented lives and wondered about our futures as young women. If Sindy and Barbie could do it, so could we was our reasoning. Although I'm not sure either of us expected to have lives as varied and interesting as the ones our imaginations invented!
But if I'm asked about the best toy I ever got I'm taken back to Christmas 1966 or 1967 when I was given a Britain's Floral Garden. For those not in the know, this was a miniature gardening set. There were baseboards with lawns, flower beds and paths; miniature buildings like greenhouses or sheds; trees and vegetable plants and so many flowers all waiting to be planted using the plastic dibber. There were tiny figures like the gardener and his wife, animals like dogs and rabbits and chickens, garden furniture like benches and bird baths. All on a tiny scale, all waiting to be created by my imagination.
I spent hundreds of hours making gardens, planting and moving plants around. My Mum loved it too and we would play with it together after my little sister had gone to bed. It was a totally immersive game, really creative and fun. All my memories of Floral Garden are happy and positive. Sadly, they stopped making it in 1970, by which time I was at secondary school and developing new interests. I have since discovered that in the early part of the 20th Century there was a lead version.
I wish I'd kept my Floral Garden, I'd love to play with it now. It's available on eBay but to get a decent set together would be rather expensive, they're collectors items now. But it's been so lovely to wander down memory lane, remembering my favourite Christmas present and wonder why I never developed green fingers!
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