Are there any childhood toys that have followed you along on every move you’ve made?

Think about it, according to Answer Bag the U.S. family moves once every five years, 16 times on average . That’s a lot of effort, once again, with that toy in your hand making a tick tock motion between the moving box and the trash can, but you just can’t do it. Why do we hold on to these pieces of our past?

My Purple People Eater, circa 1956

Mine is a Purple People Eater; a one eyed flying Purple People Eater. His name sake song was the top hit of 1958. I don’t recall being inseparable with the little guy, sleeping with him under my pillow, although he’s obviously been through some rough times sans a wing and big toe.

I do however remember my mother telling me he was a gift on the day I was born. That alone gave him monumental historical importance, a physical reminder of my own mortality.

My husband John also has his tag along toy, a little brown bear he received in Holland before he came to the US. The little toy defiantly doesn’t have a place of prominence in our home, in fact you would have to dig around in our laundry room until you found it on the top shelf behind a stack of old documents.

John’s Dutch Bear, circa 1955

When I questioned John about this little bear stuffed with saw dust and held together with buttons he said: As a five year old  in Holland, Christmas was celebrated with one gift for each child, dropped off in a basket on the porch by Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus, -when John recounts his childhood I usually need to get the violin out – he remembers it was wrapped in tissue paper and he was excited because he thought it was a cheese wheel, ( I guess it’s a dutch thing), but to his surprise it was this bear, his first toy.

Maybe these simple toys are a window to our past, or tangible evidence that we really were a child once, I can’t speak for John, but my People Eater has come this far with me and it well be going along for the duration!