One of the good things about being a kid is the way you can sprawl over the floor, reading your comics or playing with your toys. When friends or relatives dropped in, the living-room chairs were occupied so there was no option but to plonk yourself on a spot on the carpet and amuse yourself the best way you could. I can still remember playing with my metallic red MATCHBOX VOLKSWAGEN FLYING BUG (with a little German-helmeted driver at the wheel, and a Germanic flag on the bonnet), scudding it over the floor then retrieving it from under the card table. (A table for playing cards, not one made of card.)
I also recall lying on the floor reading early '70s issues of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL and SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY while visiting relatives chatted away with my parents. It was cooler on the floor as the air which slid under the door had a refreshing quality to it, and kept you from overheating when the electric fire was on. One of the many things I regret about being a 'grown-up' (allegedly) is that society expects adults to behave with 'propriety', and lying on the carpet is seemingly not regarded as acceptable behaviour for anyone over the age of 14 or 15.
Which is perhaps just as well because, easy as it may be to park yourself on the axminster, once you reach a certain age it's a helluva lot harder to pick yourself up again. Who was it said that old age doesn't come alone? Whoever it was, dang me if they weren't 100% correct.
Hands up all those who'd rather be a kid again.
One of my favourite toys as a kid was MATCHBOX cars, I had loads of them (and the Matchbox motorway set) but never seen that wee gem was it part of a similar looking set?
ReplyDeleteIf I lay on the floor at my age to read I wouldn't be able to get back up again so I tend to avoid that (unless Vodka is invoved :) )
There was a series of them, so it was part of a set in that sense, McS, but they were sold individually, not together (as far as I know). I bought the car (my original one that is) in 1972, so truth to tell, I was probably too old to be playing with toy cars as I was 13 - couldn't resist it 'though.
ReplyDeleteGot a fair few of those Matchbox cars with the heads sticking out the top (four I think?).
ReplyDeleteSitting on the floor's all well and good, but whenever I've tried it over the last few years I end up with pins and needles within a few minutes. Kids must have special "flood glands" built in (or something like that), and they evaporate once puberty hits. Just a theory.
As a kid I used to be able to sit on an armchair for hours, reading my comics with my legs folded up underneath me, and have no adverse effects, but now they'd go numb within minutes. Funny that, eh?
ReplyDelete" I was probably too old to be playing with toy cars as I was 13 - couldn't resist it 'though."
ReplyDeleteWould have been easier to resist if they didn't look so cool.
Yeah. I'd bought the original from the proceeds of my Saturday car-washing enterprise (got a replacement for it over 20 years ago - box and all). One of my pals liked it so much, he bought one as well.
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