Question: What books or toys meant the most to you as a child and why?
Answer: I started reading when I was three so books and newspapers played a big part in my childhood. When I was five or six, it wasn’t unusual for me to run down to the road and get the newspaper. It was a local paper that revolted around our small town, and I loved it! I would lay on the floor with the paper spread out before me, and read it from back to front. I’d even read the want ads!
When I was a little girl, my dad, Granddaddy Smith, and Uncle Neil ran a plant nursery in Mableton. They carried every plant you could imagine–I particularly liked picking and eating tiny apples off the apple trees. Anyway, once a month, I had to spend Saturday at the nursery which was horribly boring for a kid. They had an old camper that served as a rest area but there wasn’t anything to do there. My dad must have told Granddaddy Smith about my love of the newspaper because one Saturday, there was a mountain of newspapers waiting for me. Not just any newspapers, but the Atlanta Journal! I spent hours pouring through those papers–and the colored comic strips! I’d never seen anything like that in my life! Granddaddy never forgot how much I loved papers–Not long before his death, I went to visit him, and when the nurse came around with the local paper, he asked for two, one for both of us.
I didn’t get into reading books until I started school, but then I was hooked. I read so much, my teacher suggested to my parents they take me to the county library in downtown Marietta for a larger selection. It was a long trip but Mom and Dad didn’t seem to mind. I won several reading awards from the county including one where I read fifty books in one summer! My favorite books were anything by Louisa May Alcott and these little blue books about famous women like Jane Addams, Jessie Fremont, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
But that didn’t mean I didn’t love toys. I loved my swing set–in fact, I could swing for hours. As I mentioned before, I loved to sing so it wasn’t unusual to catch me belting out a tune as I swang. I also loved making up stories in my head and my swing set provided a great place to do that.
I also loved Barbies! If only I’d kept them all, I would be a wealthy woman! I even had a Barbie house and a car. And the clothes! My Barbies dressed well! My cousin, Donna would play Barbies together while our parents played Rook on Friday and Saturday nights. We had such a good time. Those Barbies were very much played with and loved, and those memories are worth more than any amount of money.
Love my boys,
Nana
