Toys hold immense value to us, not just as children, but as adults, too. At Heritage Mississauga, we have some fascinating toys in our collections that have incredible stories behind them. Toys help us celebrate the fun and joy in life no matter who you are or how old you are.

Sometimes toys have meaning to us because of nostalgia, curiosity, make-believe, or any number of reasons. Take the example of William (Bill) Carr (1931-2010). He grew up on his family farm on the north-western corner of Burnhamthorpe Road and Highway #10, where Square One is today. Through his family farm ran the Toronto Suburban Railway travelling from West Toronto to Guelph. Except, in 1931, the year he was born, the train ceased operation through the farm. While Bill never got to see the train go through the family farm himself, the image of happy people rumbling through the farm was one that caught his imagination.

But Bill had a problem. He grew up during the Great Depression and the Second World War, and the family had little money to spare for extravagant toys. He instead had to make his own. Before the use of machines to make large batches of toys, many people made their own toys. Toys were made from whatever they could find: corn husks, scrap wood, thread spools, old spoons, old clothes, and spare metal, among other materials. It became a hobby for people. Some people liked to sew clothes for their dollies, others liked to carve toys out of wood. For Bill Carr, his childhood hobby was making paper models.

In 1948 his paper model of Stephenson’s “Rocket” locomotive won first place at the Hobby Show sponsored by the Brampton Rotary Club. It was made by Bill out of pressed paper and application sticks borrowed from a friend that April. This model is of the first steam engine in Britain and is just as impressive as it was over 70 years ago. Eventually, Bill got his prized Lionel Electric Model Train set to keep him company, but he continued to make toys for himself.

Another one of Bill’s creations was a paper model of a tractor. In the 1920s, the Carr family got a tractor when tractors were hard to come by, and then in 1944 his family got a rubber-tired tractor. Bill explained, “After my two [uncles] came home from the war, my grandfather bought the tractor for the three boys, they were to share it. [It was] the first modern thing we got, was we got a tractor in 1944 - a rubber-tired tractor. That was the first rubber-tired tractor we ever had because you couldn’t get tractors in the war time.” Bill’s paper models not only show us his incredible craftsmanship, but also his childlike wonder at the farm implements that the family relied on. These seemingly mundane parts of farm life were so special to him that he took the time to create them in miniature.

Toys can help tell the stories of family members young and old and help honour our loved ones. This porcelain baby doll was made by Delamary “Mary” Wilkinson (née Barker) of Erindale. This doll, made in 1985, depicts one of her sons wearing the gown that he was christened in. Mary made toys depicting all her children; her two adopted children and her two biological children. They were a labour of love, a tangible depiction of her love and devotion to her children.

Mary was not just talented at making dolls, she was also highly educated. She went to Lakeshore Teacher’s College and completed her teaching certificate in 1962, then graduated in 1968 from the Hamilton and District School of Nursing, as well as completed a B.A. at the University of Toronto with High Distinction and Dean’s Honour List in 1988. Mary’s passion, however, was teaching. She worked at Queen Elizabeth School in Val D’Or, Quebec, opened the first kindergarten in the Eastern Arctic at Fort George in 1963, then taught at public schools in Moosonee and Hornepayne. It was when teaching and being a nurse in Fort George that she learned parts of the Cree and Ojibway languages, developing a deep respect for Indigenous cultures. A local elder gave her the name Ohkee-ga-ga-ma-wah-sheek. She said that to her understanding, it means, “Proud bird beautiful when you fly”. After briefly serving as a nurse at Mississauga General Hospital, she returned to teaching in 1970, where she worked in primary schools throughout Mississauga for 43 years.

One of Mary’s most prized possessions was her ship in a bottle. While you might not think of it as a toy, Mary used it as a teaching aid for her students, with endless possibilities to express their creativity. She would ask things like: What is it? Who commands this beautiful ship? Friend or foe? Where is it going? In reality, the ship’s true story is just as fanciful as anything her students could have come up with.

The ship in a bottle was given to Mary by her father who passed away when she was 4 years old and was made by a German POW who was interned at the Cooksville Brickyard in Mississauga during the Second World War. The unknown POW sold the ship in a bottle to Mary’s father, Delmar Barker, who owned the Erindale General Store, in exchange for a pack of cigarettes.

Mary loved this ship because it reminded her of her father. She used it in the classroom, getting her students to make up different stories about where the ship in the bottle was sailing off to. Mary turned this delicate gift from her father into a toy that helped foster creativity in Mississauga’s younger generations.

While some toys teach us how to use our imagination, others teach us about community values and being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. Meet Bridgit Bear, a teddy bear that was owned by the local Girl Guides of Canada in the White Oaks Area, which included Mississauga. The White Oaks Area Girl Guides were established in 1962, and their headquarters were located at 1563 Dundas Street West in Mississauga from about 1990 to 2019. Bridgit was a way for young girls to meet and play with each other. Bridgit would be given to a unit or branch who would then have two weeks to either meet and play with another unit or organize activities for the other group to complete. In those two weeks, the girls would share with Bridgit all the activities they did as a group and write them down in Bridgit’s travel diary. Bridgit was not just a teddy bear, but a fun way for Mississauga Guides to share, learn from each other, and form friendships.

This may not look like a toy, but a child’s imagination has turned this army tool into a toy in a make-believe store. The Class 9 Portable Burroughs Adding Machine was originally adapted in 1925 from an earlier adding machine invented by William Seward Burroughs, and could be powered by either the electric motor or a manual hand crank. During the Second World War, the Class 9 Portable Burroughs Adding Machine was produced for the military, with its distinctive army green colour. So, how did it end up in a make-believe store? It was purchased in 1981 by the donor at a second-hand store on a train trip across Canada. They brought this treasure home to Mississauga where their nine-year-old daughter used the former military tool to play shop. There is even a list of grocery items and prices attached to the machine so she could remember what to charge her “customers”. She had many happy memories playing make-believe with this army gadget, reminding us that with a bit of imagination, just about anything can be a toy.

The toys in Heritage Mississauga’s collections have told us so much about how ordinary people – a farmer, a mother and a teacher, a Guide, as well as a “storekeeper” – can turn even the most mundane side of life into something magical. You don’t need much to play; you can make your own fun in whatever way you choose with a bit of creativity, imagination, and occasionally, some elbow grease. The most important thing is to have fun!

What was your favourite toy growing up?