Making memory hunting child's play

Toy-based memory prompts for writers and creatives

At nearly fifty years old, my friend Laura used to keep a small glass cabinet of toys from her childhood in her bedroom. Only a few of these toys were the originals she had as a kid. The others were eBay finds. On an evening, when others might browse the news headlines, write in their  journal, or read a book, Laura would browse eBay for 1970s toys. Any that leaped out at her with a whoosh of memory were purchased and made their way to her bedroom cabinet. 

Laura spent her early childhood in and out of hospital, suffering and recovering from a number of mouth operations to correct a cleft palate. By way of compensation, her extensive family of aunts and uncles, as well as her parents, gifted her with games and toys, many of which were hospital themed. Many of the toys she rediscovered as an adult, while they related to a traumatic period in her life, were old friends who had seen her through the roughest of times.

Toys often act as “transitional objects”—a concept first introduced by British paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott in the 1950s. Transitional objects are vital tools for helping children learn to cope with change. They can help particularly with the transfer from the care of a parent to another environment—a school or hospital, for example. 

In their parents’ absence, a child will attend to and care for their transitional object, be it a teddy bear, a blanket, or their mother’s scarf, until their parents return, at which point the object of affection is gleefully abandoned and the parent re-embraced. Is it any wonder we are so attached to our teddy bears?

But it’s not only kids who respond this way. 

This emotional bolster can come from any object at any age. As adults, these are often objects that have some ritualistic and repeated importance to us. Objects of faith fall into this same category. Like religion itself, objects that are a physical reminder of faith, such as symbols that you wear or that form part of religious ritual, may help you find solace and an expectation of care from an outside force.

Laura’s collection of toy memories proved so powerful that the cabinet began to infiltrate her dreams. It’s now been relegated from the bedroom to a box in the attic, so as not to affect her quality of sleep. 

“I had to take them out of the bedroom because I was having strange, vivid dreams—kind of mashing childhood memories with adulthood. I couldn’t face them every day because they were taking me back to the past too much.” 

Her bedroom is now devoid of anything that could intrude on her dreams.

Memory Prompts: What’s toying with your memory?

1. Play!

If you still have any childhood toys and games, get them out and play! Have a picnic with your teddy bear. Make mud pies with the Bionic Man. Invite your friends, children or dog to join you. Whatever takes your fancy but doesn’t make you feel so ridiculous that you lock out any memories.

2. Visit thrift stores & flea markets

Head off to your nearest second-hand, charity shop or thrift store. Hunt down any toys that spark a memory for you. You don’t have to fill your home with clutter from the past. Sometimes just holding an object can be a powerful link to old memories. Flea markets and car boot sales, where you’ll find a vast array of random stuff from different decades can be particularly good places to explore.

3. Pull out your old photos again

Search through old photos for any toys or play objects that leap out at you with a memory. Do you have any photos of you with your toys? What about Christmas and birthday photos? Did the toys you received as gifts make it into your long-term memory bank?

4. Take a wander through eBay

Look for old toys and games that you recognise. They might have been your own or belonged to friends. Maybe there were toys you played with at school, or that you coveted but never possessed. Search by decade and see what comes up. 

Again, you don’t have to buy anything. Photos and descriptions may be enough to spark a memory. Of course, if you do still hanker after that 1980s Bluebird Big Yellow Teapot, go nuts. 

5. Visit a toy store

Visit a toy store and browse the aisles. Pay attention to any items that remind you of toys or games from your childhood. How do modern versions of these classics compare to the ones you remember?

6. Game night

Organise a game night with friends or family, and get everyone to bring the games they played during their childhood. Does playing Monopoly remind you how your mother refused to play because she didn’t fundamentally disagreed with the whole concept of Capitalism? Did setting up the mousetrap in Mousetrap get you so hyper-excited and on-edge that you were sent to bed early for being “overtired”? 

7. Toy or game modification

Think of a how you might have modified or customised a toy or game as a child to make it more fun or personalised. Did you cut Barbie’s hair or give her a makeover with permanent marker? 

8. Toy inheritance 

Consider a toy or game you might want to pass down to a younger generation. Write a letter to the future recipient, explaining the item's significance and sharing your memories of it.

9. Toy adverts

Browse old commercials or adverts to find your favourite childhood toys and games. Can you find any old friends on screen? Did the game live up to promise of the advert or were you disappointed?

Here’re a couple of places to look up old adverts:

YouTube: A great starting point for finding old commercials. Search for keywords like "retro toy commercials," "vintage game ads," or "1980s toy adverts," and you'll find many compilations and individual videos featuring advertisements from various decades.

https://www.youtube.com/

Go to the search bar and search for “toy adverts” + DECADE + COUNTRY.

Internet Archive: A non-profit organisation that provides free access to digitised materials, including TV commercials from the 1950s to the 2000s. Browse their Television section and filter by "Commercials" to explore a vast collection of vintage ads. https://archive.org/details/classic_tv_commercials 

Retro Junk: A website dedicated to preserving retro culture, including commercials from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. You'll find a variety of categories, such as toys, games, and fast food. https://www.retrojunk.com/commercials 

TV Tropes: A website that documents various aspects of pop culture, including commercials. Check out their "Advertising" section for an extensive list of commercials and ad campaigns from different eras. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Advertising and  https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AdvertisingCampaigns 

How’s your childhood memory? Is it overflowing in technicolour or do you struggle to remember your childish years? Were toys or games a big part of your life? Have any of them left a lasting impression on you?