Christmas toys, games were homemade

The Great Dep-ression was truly a do-it-yourself era. As a youngster of that period, I not only starved for food, but for toys and games, too.

Not long ago, I went to a garage sale and walked into a garage full of like-new toys. What I would not have given for just one of those toys when I was eight years old in 1932.

At Christmas time that year my sister Mary and I didn’t even receive a chunk of coal in our stockings — something we could have used since there was no coal in our coal bin. That’s what I’d call being dirt poor.

Triumph

Once I related the “no gifts for Christmas” story to a lady holding a garage sale and she told me I could have any of her bikes at the sale for a dollar. I bought a beautiful Triumph and promptly gave it to the Cancer Society store in Boardman.

We made some simple no-cost toys out of empty wooden thread spools that would crawl across the floor and threaded buttons on string to make spinners.

My favorite toy game was a mini basketball hoop. I formed a small hoop out of a metal coat hanger and nailed it to the door of our basement wine cellar. The hoop was slightly larger than the beat up old tennis ball that I had retrieved from the East Side city dump. I spent may hours throwing at that small target.

Today I look forward to the after Christmas sales, especially those beautiful model cars. I buy one item each Christmas for posterity — that is, future great-grandchildren.

It is also an annual reminder of those lean, mean Christmas holidays of the real Great Depression. I know, since I was there.

X Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and a member of the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.