Recovered Jo Zeimet StoryWorth story — November 5, 2019.
What were your favorite toys as a child?
I had to think about the question, “what was your favorite toy as a child,” because I don’t think “toy” is what lit my jets. I could remember a few interesting things, like my mother made sure we had a little baby Gerber doll, but also a little chocolate colored doll of the same size. This would have been 1953 or so, and I have no idea where she found a little baby doll of color, but I give her lots of credit for the effort.
I also got lots of cool stuff from my Grandpa Fuller, who managed a Gambles Store in Custer, SD. The drill was — I would go in at 4 or so years old, and he’d ask me in front of someone else, “Little girl, are you a Democrat or Republican?” I was to answer with fervor, oh I am a Democrat! After the customer left, he’d give me a wooden nickel. Upon accumulation of sufficient wooden nickels, I could buy something from Gambles. I think I remember paying 17 wooden nickels for a small football helmet.
Grandpa also gifted me with a set of silver six guns, complete with black leather holsters that strapped to the leg. Wow. And I had a marvelous coonskin hat with fringed jacket and rifle that was a fave. I lost my love of guns when I shot my Aunt Inice one Christmas, and she fell over backwards dead on the ground. Scared the poo out of me, my last shot.
But the meaningful answer to what I loved and coveted as a kid was my sister’s bike, a big ol’ red bent steel tubing wonder, the kind that braked by pushing backward on the pedal. When I got big enough, about 6th grade, the bike became mine. My mom did not let me out of her sight much, but she let me ride out to the Standens’ house one sunny day, about 10 miles out in the country on a gravel road. I can still pull up the sensation of freedom and flight on that rough corrugated road that had this long incline where one could really clip and probably risk death. I have since had a lifelong love of bicycles and riding, everywhere and anytime. But now I have better brakes.
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