Childhood Toys

Back in May when I visited my folks in Rochester, NY, my Dad and I took a little side trip to the Fisher Price Toy Museum in East Aurora, NY. This wooden horse is an example of their earliest toys, which were handmade during the Great Depression. The images were paper lithographs that workers carefully glued to wood shapes.

The company grew despite the grim economy. During WWII, they stopped all manufacture of toys and made supplies for the war effort. In the postwar 1950s, they kick-started toy-making again with made popular gems such as the "Nifty Station Wagon" above. Most of the toys were made in East Aurora till the 1980s when production sadly moved overseas.

This school-house was a 1970s favorite of mine. I can remember playing with all of the little people inside the building as well as on the playground equipment. I loved drawing on the slate door with chalk too and fiddling with the magnetic letters on the roof.

I recognized many of the classic toys in the museum such as the red record player with plastic albums. But my Holy Grail of vintage toys, the Fisher Price Cash Register, was sadly absent from the display.