I have said so often that we did not have plastic – so Airfix were setting new standards in the late Fifties. They were models of aeroplanes made by assembling lots of tiny injection moulded plastic parts with glue. I also remember Airfix models and it looks as if they are still available. I used to love the idea of Painting by Numbers but I never had a set – I finally started my first one in 2020 and enjoyed doing it!) I can copy, not very well, and I can colour in precisely. I would fill the shapes precisely to their edges. For colouring books I had Lakeland pencils in a set with far more colours than the picture above. I think I must have appreciated precise two-dimensional shapes in a way that combined these two interests. I still like them and generally do a 1000-piece one at Christmas. Jigsaws came in different sizes and levels of difficulty and I worked my way up. The two things I remember liking most were jigsaw puzzles and colouring books. Toys were very much what we would now call gender biased so boys played Cowboys and Indians and had cap guns. I will start with what I remember as a young child at home. It’s roughly (only roughly) in chronological order. (But, of course, it may be five or seven before I end!) This one will look at some of the things that entertained me – from early childhood to late adolescence.

In an attempt to get things finished I am sorting out what’s left into (probably) six more posts, which I will try to write at the same time.

Jacks and sevens card game