After watching Jason unbox some “Wacky Packages” recently, I thought it might be fun to explore some of my favorite food and kitchen toys. Sadly, I don’t have many memories of playing with some of these toys because they didn’t all survive my move from Illinois to Georgia.
1. Baby Bottles with “disappearing milk” (or juice)
These things were just plain fascinating. One minute they were full, then I would flip them over to pretend to feed my baby doll and the liquid was “gone”.
When I flipped it back over, it was full again. I could feed another baby doll. What other use is there for these? Once the bottle was in a doll’s mouth, I didn’t want to put it in my own mouth.
I’m sure there’s an explanation I could Google to find out how those bottles worked but sometimes it’s just more fun to keep the mystery and wonder.
2. Powder Puff Shopping Cart
Shopping Carts were always great toys. I could put my other toys in my cart. There could be a baby doll in the front and a combination of pretend and real (but empty) food packages in the basket.
Unfortunately, the shopping cart was one of the toys that didn’t fare so well in our move from Illinois to Georgia. It broke shortly after we arrived in our new home.
3. Brown Wicker Basket with Red and White Polka-Dotted cloth.
I had a little wicker basket with red and white polka-dotted fabric over the top. It would have made a perfect “Red Riding Hood” basket too. I remember putting some of the pretend milk and juice containers in there as well.
4. Raggedy Ann Stove – (Hasbro)
I don’t really have a lot of memories of playing with this stove either. There were little knobs to turn, but even if there weren’t, I would have been fine with pretending there were.
My mom told me I had some play food, but I don’t remember exactly which brand I had. My most vivid memories of playing kitchen involved pretending to eat invisible food for some strange reason.
5. Penguin Refrigerator (Kusan Zoodle Land)
It’s a pretend refrigerator that’s shaped like a penguin. That’s really all I remember about it. I think it came with a milk jug and a juice jug. There was also a smaller penguin shaped pitcher inside it.
The refrigerator did make it to Georgia and had a permanent spot in our playroom next to the toy box with my brother’s trucks in it.
As you can see from the picture, I may have been more interested in my Waterfuls game than the refrigerator that first Christmas. Or maybe I played with it after the camera got put away for the morning.
6. Blender and Hand Mixer
These were fun. They were both avocado green like real small appliances of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I listed them together as I remember them being a set. There was a button to press on the mixer that would make the plastic blades move like they would on a real hand mixer.
The blender had the same kind of liquid as the milk and juice bottles. I think it may have been a dark pink which was interesting against the avocado green of the blender top and base. There was a button to press that stirred up the pink liquid.
7. Easy Bake Oven
You can’t have a kitchen toy discussion without an Easy Bake Oven experience. Baking a light bulb cake was a rite of passage for our generation. I bought my neighbor’s Easy Bake Oven. It was an early 1980’s version. I remember the chocolate cake being very brownie like.
It wasn’t something we did often, but we made a couple of cakes in there and then felt confident enough to use the real oven. Of course, there was parental assistance and or supervision in both instances.
8. Snoopy Sno Cone Machine
This was a “grail toy” we never managed to get our hands on. I could probably have learned to use a food processor or a blender to “shave” the ice but we lost too many real blenders because the motor burned out from the blades trying to crush the ice. It’s a shame because I’ve always got some delicious Torani syrups to drizzle on it.
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