DUCK TALES: MY FIRST TOY

The first toy I remember having was a yellow wooden duck-on-wheels, with a happy-orange beak and with three (or maybe four) little ducklings attached to it by links. It was a pull-along toy with a string attached, and I have a vivid mental picture of a curly-haired child roly-poly-toddling, pulling along a waddling clack-clacketing mother duck, her ducklings frantically following.

Apparently I was so fond of the duck that I would insist on having it with me when I was bathed in my orange plastic tub. Not being a real duck, the toy did not survive the daily duckings in the soapy water. The links dismantled, separating my little duck family, and the bereaved-bedraggled ducks were relegated to the box-of-broken-toys.

Many years later, when I was an inquisitive eight-or-nine-year-old, on being told of my fascination for this toy, I hunted around the house and found two sorry-looking ducklings, bereft of their mother, their siblings and their bright yellow paint.

To atone for my childhood duck-misdemeanor, I tried to find a similar toy for my daughters, mentally promising to take better care of the duck-family. I couldn’t find a replica, though I did find a rubber mother duck with four ducklings nestled on its broad back. Sadly, my daughters did not share my childhood fascination for ducks (preferring four-legged creatures) and the rubber toy, almost as good as new, lies (family intact) in the box-of-unused-toys. Somehow, I don’t have the heart to part with it.

WHAT ‘FIRST TOY’ DO YOU REMEMBER PLAYING WITH?