A Vintage Memory

I was cleaning recently and came across a box of my old toys. When I was young, I didn't own a lot of toys, so I treasured and took good care of each one. I still have some of them. I usually received one thing, just one, for a birthday or Christmas. As I pulled a particular toy out of the box, I had a strong flashback.

I recalled the non occasion in 1958 when my father bought it for me. I remembered it so well because the provincial government had just instituted the 3% sales tax. It was nicknamed the "Frost Bite", after provincial premier, Leslie Frost. Dad muttered about it as he counted out the additional change.

We were in a hobby store on Mt. Pleasant Blvd. in Toronto where dad was, as always, trying to get me interested in toy trains. I was looking at other things. The store owner saw me eyeing a puppet and cleverly demonstrated what the puppet could do. It developed a personality. Dad must have enjoyed it as well because the mohair, Steiff Jocko, monkey puppet came home with me.

When I was finished replaying the memory in my mind, I excitedly ran to show Jocko to hubby.

"Look what I found. Can you believe I got him when I was only eight years old?"

His response?

"I'd believe it if you got him when you were eighteen years old."