Media and the Most Vulnerable Population

Assignment

This week I would like you to reflect upon your childhood and how adver!sers found you.

Media Use Journal

1. What are the most memorable toys that you played with as a child? What do you remember most about those toys?

   This has been a challenging question for me this week, as I do not recall having much as a child growing up. I do remember that most of my toys were gifted to me through hand-me-downs or hand-made. My parents were young, even by today's standards. It wasn't until late elementary - 5th or 6th grade / 1989 or 1990 - that I recall shopping for toys.

   So early in my youth, I remember my mother sewing me "Carebears" made from patterns at the fabric store. I also remember my Grandmother making me a "Cabbage Patch" doll. Well, she made one for everyone in the family, but mine was special.

   My Grandfather made me several wooden gifts in his woodshop. One such gift was homemade lincoln logs. I remember I would stack and build structures from these and try new designs. There were no instructions or pictures included, so everything had to come from my imagination.

   I remember having a whole bunch of second-hand legos gifted to me. The legos were those of my three uncles' combined sets. These were brought to me in some sort of large container, again with no instructions or pictures. I had to build everything from my imagination. Today, this would look like that Lego TV show that challenges participants to build things, while kids watch.

   I also remember one of my Uncles gifting me his BMX bike. This gift may have sparked my interest in bicycles that I carry to this day. I remember riding it through the trailer park and behind the junkyard to some dirt track. There were other kids there. I suppose they were from the neighborhood. We moved often, so I didn't know anybody. I would've been early elementary, maybe 3rd or 4th grade? Anyway, I remember riding on that dirt track. Overcoming the fear of the steep hills and speeding around. I remember being encouraged by others that were there. That is memorable.

   I remember playing with all these things at different points of my childhood, as we moved from place to place. I never thought anything of them being gifted, hand-me-downs, or homemade. I don't ever remember having a desire for anything other than what I had.

2. How did you get the toys? Were they gifts? Did someone buy them for you? If you know, where were they purchased? Do you have a memory of purchasing the toy?

   I remember shopping for "Carebear" fabric with my mother at a young age. I don't recall the television show at all, which came out in 1985. There were many patterns to choose from; we selected two or three Carebear patterns. I remember we choose by color and their symbols. We probably made up our meanings for the bears, seems like the thing we would have done. So no marketing influence my decision-making. I remember my Mother sewing them together for me and I helped stuff them. These Carebears joined me with my other stuffed animals that I had collected as gifts.

   I don't remember ever going to the store and buying any stuffed animals, and yet somehow I had like 50 of these things by late elementary school. They kept me company in my bed and bedroom right up to High School. I then passed them onto my new step-siblings, carrying the tradition forward.

   Everything else in my early elementary days where gifts. It wasn't until late elementary that I remember going to a store and buying toys, and that happened not frequently. I also remember receiving IOUs as gifts because we couldn't afford the toys at the store, yep.

3. Do you remember any TV advertisements for the specific toys you are writing about? If not, was there some other reason behind your desire for the toy?

   Yeah... like I said in other discussions, this topic is really hard for me to relate to. I don't think we had a television and if we did, I don't recall watching it until late elementary. I did have books though. These were gifted to me as well. Except those that were purchased through the school book club, but that wasn't until later. However, I remember my Grandmother taking me to a bookstore in these early years and looking at all the Dr. Suess books. We choose one. She bought it for me and then later read it to me. There was no advertisement, and neither of us knew what the book would be about. We bought the "The Butter Battle Book." Turns out this book is about the arms race, nuclear war, with a touch of WWII... I thought it was about toast at this age.

   These are all great memories for me and think that I was very fortunate to have such a loving, gifting, caring family. I am also fortunate that my family was industrious and created these things for me. I would imagine my experience would have been similar, given the same financial circumstances and family, even with today's current marketing.