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In reply to the discussion: What Was Your Favorite X-mas Present as a Kid? [View all]TygrBright
(20,758 posts)He brought them home and painted them like kitchen appliances- a refrigerator, a stove, and a sink and cabinet/countertop combination. He used more cardboard to make shelves and knobs and handles.
Those, and a set of plastic cookware (from Monty Wards, of course!) were arranged like a "play kitchen" in the basement. Christmas Eve after I went to bed the 'rents even brought the little table from my bedroom, and the dishes I already had, down and arranged them with the new "appliances".
On Christmas morning I was too excited to even notice that my table was gone from my bedroom. I raced downstairs and tried SO hard not to be disappointed at what looked like a very meager haul indeed under the Christmas tree.
Then the 'rents came downstairs and explained that "Santa couldn't fit your present under the tree so he left it in the basement."
Keeping in mind this was in the early 1960s and I was about five or six years old and totally unaware of how gendered playthings contribute to the oppression of women by the Patriarchy, I was UTTERLY DAZZLED.
It was totally the coolest present I ever got. I was gobsmacked.
We had almost no money back then. I think my Dad might have been between jobs. For the cost of the plastic cookware set, a little paint and some fasteners and glue, he made me feel like a millionaire's kid. Those play appliances were WAY more lifelike than the tacky little plastic ones that we couldn't afford anyway.
reminiscently,
Bright