I'm not claiming to be psychic or anything, but something is telling me it has been a long time since you played with any of these vintage toys from days gone by.

I will take it one step further and say, a voice is telling me it has been many decades since you have played with these favorite toys of mine. However, perhaps you were able to relive some of your childhood by introducing these must-have toys to your children.

Either way, I invite you to take a stroll with me down memory lane as we visit these toys from the past, and for at least a few moments we can all be young again.

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    SLINKY

    The slinky was always a favorite of mine - but let me just say the slinky came along way before I did. Slinky - 40s.....Zane - 60s.

    The most fun I had with a slinky was walking it down the stairs. At the top of the stairs you just get the slinky started and watch it all the way down the stairs, step by step.\

    It's pretty much unexplainable, but there was just something very soothing and satisfying about sitting there with one end of the slinky in either hand and gently tossing it back and forth, hand to hand, back and forth.

    I always wondered what the guy was thinking who invented the slinky. As it turns out, the idea of a slinky as a toy was quite an accident, as it's designer, Richard James was trying to come up with something that would keep sensitive ship equipment steady at sea.

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    TONKA TRUCKS

    It seems that most kids love cars and trucks, big and small. But, Tonka trucks were extra special because they were larger than pretty much any other toy vehicle we had. Oh, and these weren't made of plastic. This was sturdy steel construction.

    My older brother and I shared a dump truck, a crane, and a road grader. The crane was my favorite, I think, because it had the most moving parts. Of course, a sandbox was a must.

    You can still buy these beauties for around 30 bucks, and you can find some real vintage Tonka machinery from fifty years ago and pay close to $100.

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    PLAY DOH

    This is another one that pre-dates me by a few years as Play-Doh hit the market back in the 50s.

    You could create just about anything your imagination can think of. In my case, it took quite a bit of imagination to figure out what exactly it was that I was creating.

    I always loved taking a coin and making an imprint on the dough, or smashing the dough flat across a dollar bill and getting the imprint of the dollar bill on the dough.

    I am wondering if I am the only person in the world who thought Play-Doh was pretty tasty. No, you aren't supposed to eat it, and I don't know why I ever thought it might be a good idea to try it. But, I tried it and I liked it - a lot. A look at the ingredients would explain it's appeal....water, salt, and flour.  I remember it had a distinct salty flavor.

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    RACE TRACK

    Racing cars around a track held a great appeal, but most of the time, the fantasy was far better than reality. As I recall, our track was for Hot Wheels, which were just the coolest cars money could buy - and you didn't need a drivers license to "get behind the wheel."

    The problem was keeping the cars on the track. Of course, speed was the name of the game, but running these hot cars at full throttle made it impossible to keep them on the track in the curves. That meant endlessly retrieving the cars, placing them back on the track, and doing a re-start.

    We also had a 360 loop, but I don't remember ever getting a car to speed all the way around the loop without falling off the track.

    Still, racing Hot Wheels was the most fun two preacher's kids could have - without getting into serious trouble.

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    TWISTER

    Milton Bradley created this hall of fame toy in the 1960s, and early on it was labeled by competitors as "sex in a box."

    Of course, I was pretty young when I played it and never thought of it as a sexual game. It was always truly rising to the challenge of the competition to arise victorious.

    Spin the dial, follow the directions, and see if you can become a human pretzel. The premise is pretty simple, and one that works because the game has continued to be introduced to new generations.

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