Family History TuesdayZ | Childhood Toy

Here is this week's journal prompt :

My Personal Journaling:

I had many special treasures growing up, including my huge stuffed animal collection. I think my favorites would have to be my Breyer Horse Collection. I remember saving up all my money for months to be able to get just one. I remember for a few years that is all I would say that I wanted for Birthdays/Christmas/Special Occasions. My parents indulged me probably a little too much and I think I ended up with about 20. 

These horses were very well loved. They didn’t just sit on my dresser (well, I guess they did when I wasn’t playing with them), but they spent a lot of time on my bedroom floor being played with. I remember always organizing and reorganizing where I put the horses in my room. They all had names and families and adventures. I spent hours coming up with stories for my herd. I made them blankets out of scraps of fabric. I made stables out of boxes. At one point, I even wrote down their adventures in a notebook in story form (I wanted to be an author back then). 

My sister, Charity’s best friend, Marla, also had a love for these Breyer Horses and she had more than I did. Sometimes when Marla would come to play with my sister or I went over to her house (since one of my best friends (Misty) happened to be her sister), I monopolized Marla’s time and we played horses together.

These horses meant so much to me and I played out a lot of my emotions on them. So of course when it came to “growing up” and getting married and moving away - I couldn’t give them up.  They stayed in boxes for years and years. Some of them are still in great condition and some are missing legs, but they still mean a lot to me.  

When my daughter was about 8 and she finally had her own room and space to put them - I took them out of the storage boxes and gave them to her.  I don’t see her playing with them AS MUCH as I did, but she loves them and is so excited to have something from my childhood. Of course she has new names for them and new adventures and families that they have.  But she is starting to ask to purchase some more, so she is saving up to add to the collection!

Here is Bethie with a few horses in my collection:

Each Tuesday, I am going to be offering prompts or ideas. If you don't write in your journal regularly - I am going to encourage you to write just ONCE A WEEK and answer the question/idea that I give on Tuesdays. These ideas hopefully will spark a memory and you will be able to capture that in what you write/record so that it can be left for your children/grandchildren/family/friends. Give as much detail as you can when answering.

Will you do this for me? Will you do this for your families? You can write it down in a journal, you can type it up on a computer or journaling software, you can take a recorder and talk, you can videotape your answers, you can even scrap a page with the journaling. It doesn't matter how you do this - it's just important that you do it. The memories, the dates, the information is the only real thing we can leave to our families when we are gone.

If I come up with other family history ideas - I will be sure to share it here too - and if you want to share with me your ideas - that would be wonderful and I'd be glad to share them here too. Just comment here or email me at dedesmith32@gmail.com.