We continue with my trial run of Share Your Nostalgia, an idea suggested to me by some fellow bloggers. The topic for this feature is “The Toy of Your Life.” Was there one toy that you considered the “best?” When you think of yourself as a child, what is the toy that immediately pops into your mind? What was the toy that you brought to Show and Tell or took with you everywhere?
We turn the blog over to my buddy, Randy Dafoe today. Randy is a fellow music lover and he and I happen to share a love for a good (and sometimes bad) cover song. His blog, Mostly Music Covers, is a daily read for me. Be sure to check him out here: https://mostlymusiccovers.com/
Will Randy opt for a musical toy like Nancy did yesterday? Take it away, Cowboy …..
The Toy of Your Life – Randy Dafoe
What was the “Toy of Your Life?”. What was that one toy that you carried with you everywhere, brought to show and tell, and made your friends envious of you? When you think back to your childhood, what is that one toy that sticks out as a favorite? Why was it? Why did you want it? How did you get it?
When Keith asked the above questions, I needed no time to think about which toy I was going to write about. It was my Roy Rogers toys. If you grew up from the 1940s through to the 60s it was a coveted thing to have the pair of Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger action figures.
If you don’t know who he was here is a song “Blue Shadows On The Trail” and a little background.
Roy Rogers (Leonard Franklin Slye, November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was following the dusty trail blazed by the likes of Tom Mix and the great Gene Autry (where Rogers was at one time just his sidekick). However, Rogers would come to be known as the “King of the Cowboys”. A great singer who would go into acting and become the biggest singing and acting “Western Star” of all time.
Elton John & Bernie Taupin wrote a song about him, and it appeared on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album in 1973.
Being a star like that you inevitably have the merchandise. Back then lunch boxes were a big thing, but for me it was the Roy Rogers Cowboy figure and his faithful horse Trigger. I found a picture that shows it came with his dog Bullet (gotta love the original names) but I really don’t remember having it. At around seven years old Roy Rogers was like a hero to me. He had his own TV series that, like his Western movies were in reruns in the mid 60s. So, I got to watch his shows when we got our first TV in about 1965. Now one TV and eight people in the house, my time was rationed, thankfully my dad liked to watch Roy Rogers, which is where I picked it up to begin with. Roy was the prototypical good guy in the white hat who always did the right thing and saved the day.
So, I probably bugged my parents for the better part of a year before I got it for Christmas. I would pretend he was riding into various adventures and sometimes I just liked to look at it sitting on the floor of my room. I use the term ‘room’ generously, I actually didn’t have one at that time. My bed was on the landing at the top of the stairs in our little one and half story house. My sister’s had the room on the left and my two older brothers the room on the right. But there was plenty of space to play and as possessions were a rare thing, I coveted that Cowboy and horse for at least a couple of years.
But, as it is said in the song “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys”. Roy and Trigger got put in a box. At first it was in the closet in my sisters (I have three of them) room and then to be honest I don’t know what happened to them. My mother made a healthy habit of donating our things. As the years passed Roy became less of a celebrity and to another little boy it was probably just a cowboy and horse. Needless to say, I have not forgotten Roy and Trigger, nearly 60 years later I can still picture myself on the floor and having the time of my life making up my own cowboy stories.
Thanks, Keith, for the opportunity to reminisce and share a story about my favorite toy.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 
Thanks for sharing, Randy! Roy was a hero to kids and adults everywhere.
I’d imagine that these figures were to you what Star Wars figures were to me. My brother and I played with ours for hours a day!
Imaginations soared!!
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You’re most welcome Keith. It was a lot of fun to travel back in time!
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As I listened to Roy I was reminded of a song he did in 1991. Clint Black was often said to look like Roy. They did a fun duet together with a video that was just as fun. Check out Hold On, Partner:
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Thanks for posting that, can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it!
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That was great Randy. When I read it I thought of toy story when they were put away. That was a great era for heroes and toys.
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Thanks Max, ha, I never thought of a Toy Story connection,
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It was sad when you were talking about the next boy that got the toy probably didn’t know who it was…but I’m sure he enjoyed it.
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what a great memory of roy and all that went with him.
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Thanks very much Beth.
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Good memories! Kind of a cool looking action figure too. That was rough having to have your bed in the landing!
Roy was before my time, but interestingly I knew about him pretty young through something you mention – the Elton John song, one of the standouts on that great album.
Sounds like your parents and mine were somewhat alike, and I think we’re the better for it. I know in my case, I had some nice toys and I appreciated them but I wouldn’t just be given any old thing I wanted any time and I sure knew not to be one of those brats in a store having a hissy fit if they wouldn’t buy me something right away. You asked for something maybe for your birthday and Christmas, and usually ‘Santa” would co-operate … and then it was indeed a valued possession for me.
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I have to admit the bedroom situation was not ideal but you’re a kid so you roll with it. Stay at home mom one income family, one gift for your birthday and one for Christmas, that was it. Indeed different from how my daughters grew up, not that Im unhappy with how they turned out!
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I got the same ones for Christmas. Roy, Trigger, Bullet, Dale and her horse, and a stagecoach and a jeep with a Pat Brady figure in the drivers seat. I also carried my Roy Rogers metal lunchbox to school with a thermos full of cold milk. I was all in on Roy, Gene and Hop along Cassidy, but Davey Crockett was my main guy. Us neighborhood kids fought the battle of the Alamo once a week along with WW2 battles and Custers last stand. Georgie, our resident duffus was great at being shot and rolling off the roof of his garage and landing on the thick grass in his parents yard. The rest of us died where we stood, and I remember how hot those roofs were. I’ll save my Superman suit trilogy for a later date. Thanks for the memory poke.
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Ha! Great times you had and the full Roy and Dale set! Good we survived all that, but we made our own fun most of the time.
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I have the stagecoach but the rest of the family was lost over the years. My mother also threw away all my comic book collection from the 1950s through the 60s.
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Oh my condolences. I loved my mom but throwing out my original six complete set of hockey cards was a tough moment. I saved my Tonka trucks though.
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Ouch! I’m sorry to hear about that!
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I remember that a lot- most- of toys were tinplate then, before the Plastic Bunch took over Toy Town. Then the tinplate ones did get banished to the badlands of dusty drawers and darkly lit lofts, left battle scarred and rusting, ready to be moseyed on when Ma did her next Spring cleaning/round up. Old Dinky toys, Mad mags, a pair of rare chrome plated pirate pistol, memorable Scalextric slot cars, all gone. Till now, forgotten!
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Sorry to bring back mom cleaning memories, seems we all have some. Solice in that I suppose!
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I enjoyed reading this, Randy. That said, I pretty know Roy Rogers by name only, even though I loved to watch Western movies with John Wayne and TV series like Bonanza while growing up back in Germany. There was a time when they were showing Western movies almost every Saturday evening. Back then, we had two national and one regional channel – all of it public television. Even though it added up to three channels only, most of the time you could find good stuff!
As a kid, I was very much into playing cowboys and Indians with my best friend, based on Karl May characters. He was always Old Shatterhand, while I was always Winnetou, the Apache. At some point, we even costumed. And yes, I was wearing a wig with long black hair. I’m sure folks who saw us roam around the neighborhood got a good laugh!
I didn’t have action figures but I had smaller cowboy and Indian figures. Typically, you couldn’t move their arms and legs, but it still was fun playing with them. Most of the time, I used the figures when I was playing by myself.
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Thanks Christian I am lazy so I’ll just repeat what I said on my site!
I guess that surprises me a bit that Westerns culture was that popular in Germany. My how things change. We used to do much the same here. That kind of innocent play is certainly a thing of the past.
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God forbid some kid play Cowboys and Indians today … The PC police will jump right in and stop that …
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Oh yeah, big time. Truth be told while we were innocent kids that whole milieu is quite culturally insensitive.
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No question. And, btw, my friend and I were heavily armed with toy weapons, including pistols, rifles, tomahawk and knives to fight off the bad guys. We would never pretend to fight each other! If kids would do that nowadays, they might get shot, especially in this trigger-happy country!
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Absolutely!! I had two amazing six shooters (cap guns, I think) and always had them when we played
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