Monday, November 23, 2009

Little People

My kids are very fortunate. They have nearly everything they could want or need. (With the exception of a DS, we won't let them have one of those. Yet.) But every so often, while browsing through the toy aisles at Target, I catch sight of the Fisher Price Little People toys. And it makes me a little sad. Because the Little People of today are nothing like the Little People of my era.


Growing up, my neighborhood friends and I would spend HOURS playing Little People. It's pretty much all we did unless we were outside playing. (Until that blasted Atari came around, anyway.) Forget dolls or games or coloring. Nope, we only wanted our Little People. We would lay everything out in the middle of the room and one by one, we'd take turns picking which sets we wanted, which people we wanted. Then we'd each set up our own area, eventually creating a whole neighborhood. We'd beg our mom's to let us keep everything out so we could continue playing the next day.


When did Fisher-Price change the Little People? Now they're bigger, fatter and aren't interchangeable between sets - the fireman can only go in the fire truck, the farmer won't fit in the bus. You get the picture. I miss my vintage toys. I eventually outgrew them and they were sold in a garage sale. Such a travesty.

















I had all of these, with the exception of the house of the house in the first picture.




4 comments:

Becky J said...

OMG - My parent's still have all of ours and that boat is in their extra bathroom.

Christy said...

I don't remember having any little people myself, but one of my neighbors had the parking garage/service station. That brought back a ton of memories!

This post reminds me of when my family used to play Life and see how many little pink or blue pegs into our prospective cars.

Jake Gallogly said...

You were spoiled! And moms favorite.

Brenda said...

My Mom still has every single one of the items you pictured. In the basement. And they are what my girls RUN TO when they get to Mamaw and Papaw's house.