Today is my friend Natalie‘s first birthday party. Her actual birthday isn’t for a few days yet but having the party on the weekend is imminently practical. Her parents are wise. Because I don’t know nothin’ ’bout no babies, I bought her a gift that is really more for the rest of us. Behold:
She won’t have the slightest idea what this actually is. Today’s toy phones are at the very least cordless and more likely cell phones (including ones without any zeroes, wtf?). Nevertheless, this amuses me and she might find it fun for a bit. But I suspect she’s find the googly-eyed frog gift bag just as compelling.
Update: The phone held its own among the other gifts. Then again, Natalie was so high on sugar that everything was WONDERFUL for a little while:
Comments (14)
We had that exact phone when I was a kid. Hell, my mother may well still have it lying around for all the bloody grandchildren to place painstakingly dialed calls on.
sgazzetti: I think it is safe to say that every household with kids in a certain age range had this phone.
I am pleased to pass on this priceless artifact to another generation so that they too can place painstakingly dialed calls.
Awww. We had that phone too. Fisher Price made the greatest toys.
carlarey: Word.
We didn’t have that phone…it came along later. But it was fun to play with it when I was a babysitter!
I can feel the exact weight of the thing, and the way it jiggles from side to side.
I want to chew on the thin yellow cord.
I bought the same toy for my niece last Christmas. She loved it!
Oooh, I can almost the taste the gritty sugar in that icing. I’m sure there will be many times in the future that she wishes she could fall face down in a pile of frosting that way again.
Wonderful gift. I, too, had this phone. Feeling quite a pang of nostalgia right now.
Also do you remember the “busy box” with multiple activities including the phone dial, but also a bell and a spinner thing? I always found the older (teenagers) kids way more attracted to that thing. The perfect companion to this phone would be the dome with wheels that popped the balls around when you pushed it…
Fisher-Price still makes those “pops-balls-around-in-a-dome things.” The dangerous wooden handle has now been replaced with an equally dangerous but much safer looking plastic handle.
And it still makes that same noise that has driven generations of mothers to put their heads in the oven.
Ogre: It is really a miracle someone didn’t get her one of those too. Ah, well, there’s always next year. Or Christmas!
She’ll figure it out, man. I bought the same phone for my kid (scoured ebay for it, even) and she somehow started holding the receiver up to her ear without me even modeling it for her.
I also got her one of those old skool Fisher Price Little People barns — the one that moos when you open the front doors. Love!
I had this exact kind of phone (60s) The gal is so cute…