The Disneykins Disney Castle was one of the more extravagent toys of our youth. It was purchased via S&H Green Stamps (our parents probably wouldn't have spent real money on such an item). Be a bunch of wild and enthusiastic boys way under the age of ten, we began breaking and losing bits of it immediately. I don't think we ever had the patience to put the transparent castle together at all. The more spindly figures (like Captain Hook) soon had their legs snapped off by rough handling. I remember playing with them almost right away on the slab under the backyard water faucet, and probably losing quite a few then and there. At that age, a little toy going into the grass was just lost for good, and might as well have fallen into a black hole. One of my favorites was Jiminy Cricket, and I took him around quite a bit, once getting him jammed in the screen door at my grandmother's house. I bought a replacement for him years later. Today the only surviving original figure from the set is Dopey, Some of the scenery lasted longer and even today the Seven Dwarves' house and the plastic cave are still somewhere in the old toy box. It inspired a poem, "Glass Castle", about the fragility of childhood dreams and wishes.
No comments:
Post a Comment