My Story in Lists| Favorite Toys I had as a Child Part II

It was Christmas morning. I remember waking up with such excitement, the kind that only a child who went to sleep listening for Santa could have. We must have been very very good that year because wrapped in big boxes (the best kind!) was a Suzy Bake Oven and Sink.

A thousand times better than an Easy Bake Oven, the Suzy Bake Oven was to me a real deal. It looked like an adult oven, except that it was just the perfect height for a child and was a beautiful color of aquamarine. I could not believe my eyes. Santa had never been so generous to us before. Sure I had to share it with my sister, but I didn't care. From the moment I had set foot in a kindergarten room where there was a toy stove & oven, I wanted one of my very own. But with this one I didn't have to pretend I was making cakes and cookies, with this one I would actually be doing it.

I could have played for the rest of the day with the oven, but that would have to wait because we had grandparents to go visit where we were showered with love and presents.

Something happened a day or so after Christmas. I can't remember what I did, but dad got angry at me and asked me what gift I liked the most. I was so afraid that he was going to take whatever I said away from me as punishment so I lied and told him the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls my grandmother had given me. Even as I said the words, I knew there was no way he could believe me. I loved my grandmother, but the dolls couldn't compare. I could see in his eyes he didn't believe me and he asked me again. I insisted, holding my breath, waiting for the consequence. Instead he pursed his lips and let it go. I felt so horrible, I took the special care of those dolls to show her how much I liked them. Funny enough I still have those dolls and they are even more raggedy than ever.

Unlike my beautiful Blaze, I have no pictures of my Suzy Bake Oven, but I did get one off the internet. To my six-year old eyes, I swore the oven was real, not just some light bulb doing the trick.

The sink was pretty cool, too, with the ability to have running water really come out of the facet. Eliz and I baked many delicious cakes and cookies in the little oven. I never grew tired of it. It was one of the toys I mourned leaving behind when we moved to Puerto Rico, taking consolation in the fact that it was going into storage in the little shack behind my grandfather's house and would be there when we returned. Unfortunately for me, the shack was exactly that, a shack, and most of our toys were ruined from rain by the time we returned two years later, my Suzy back oven, included.