The Collectors
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Sunday 23 December 2007
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Alan Griffiths has spent the last 30 years collecting anything and everything that influenced children during their upbringing. Today he uses those items to educate and excite children across South Australia.
What did children ever do before TVs, computers and video games? Alan takes us back to a time when toys were built to last and many in fact were homemade.
Toys such as simple knuckle bones, jack-in-a-boxes, spinning tops and whirly-gigs have all been popular for well over 100 years. During the depression in the 1930s parents made toys for their children from tin, wood and string. These were both wonderfully creative and practical as well.
During war times children were sometimes given toy sewing machines. Since factories at the time turned to making ammunition instead of real sewing machines, mothers used the toys to produce clothing for the children.
While Alan’s collection includes many Australian made toys from before the 1960s, he points out this is due to the Government lifting the tariffs that enabled a flood of international products to enter the country resulting in the collapse of the local toy industry. Still today only 5-7% of all toys are locally made.
When children see Alan’s collection on display today they love it because it’s filled with things they’ve never seen before.
