Childhood Memories

I remember who my first ponies were... baby Splashes and Merriweather the Twice as Fancy pony. I don't remember why I recieved them or when, but I do remember having only those two... and I've been addicted ever since!
My collection has grown ever since. I was born in 1985, so when I reached a "playing age", I already had to go to several flea markets to find ponies. Of course they were sold in stores still, but the ones I really wanted because they appeared in the comic books or in the movie... I had to find on flea markets.

Here is me, I think I was about 5 or 6 here... with my collection thus far. I know some ponies have haircuts... ^^; My collection was still rather small here.

One day I wanted to visit a flea market, but I became really ill that day, so my father went for me. I remember he came back with a bunch of adults, a fakie baby and baby Quackers. baby Quackers, whose real name I didn't know back then so I named her Eendeparaplutje (Duck Umbrella), has been my favorite pony ever since.

Of course, there was one pony I really wanted but never got... baby Lickety Split. Meanwhile both my best friend and my niece found her, and I remember one time my friend went on a holiday and baby Lickety Split stayed with me for those two weeks, weeee, what fun! When I began collecting later, I got her Lickety Split, and it's still the one in my collection, even though she's not as mint as she could be... but I wouldn't want any other :)

Here is me with my aunt. I didn't have any houses for my ponies, so I build them from video boxes. Yes, I did have 2 pony schools... Beats me why I got the second one, though. Can't remember. I do remember recieving the first on Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus which we celebrate on December 5th.

As my ponies didn't have a place to live (I didn't have Dream Castle or Paradise Estate, only the Show Stable, kitchen and School), my father build me a "pony house", a building I still have today but which now functions as a place where I keep my pony merchandise, because I lost all  accessories he build me :( Above you can see the house as it was in 1994, I think... It was a place where babies wihout mommies could live (except baby Glory, as her mother was the owner of the house!)
You can see most of the ponies in here are babies, as I hardly ever played with the adults, except as guardians or parents of the ponies.

But my pony house became way too small for all my ponies, as well. Even as a child I had a lot of ponies I didn't really play with, but were just part of my collection. They lived in here, as did my playsets when I wasn't playing with them. Later on the playsets moved to another corner in my room, where I build my very own Ponyvillage. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of that.

Here is me, just graduating from my swimming exam. I made it, as you can see, and I recieved two ponies as a gift! Yay ^-^; I know I got a lot of ponies from flea markets as they became increasingly hard to find as I got older. I do remember going to Germany on a holiday, and I was SO suprised to find ponies there! Later I went there with my dad just to get some ponies, as they were one of the few toys I liked, but they were hardly available in the Netherlands anymore... The last time I found gen1 ponies in a store was in 1996, when we went to Belgium and I found the Perm Shoppe, the baby bonnet school of dance and a Brush and Grow pony in a small little toy store!

Well, this is the last picture... it was taken way before I got my pony house, and after the swimming exam ponies (can you find them?), so I guess this was about 1991 or 1992... Me with my collection! Nice, eh?

After we moved when I was 11, I lost interest in playing with ponies for a bit... I got a horse, a new house... But I always kept them close. When the gen2 ponies were released, however, I couldn't help but buy them! This was in 1998... And I played quite a bit with those gen2 ponies, especially after the royal ponies were released. As I was older, my stories became more mature and complicated, and right now I'm in the process of writing them down as an ongoing story. You can find the URL in the links section of the site :)

When I discovered the pony community on the internet in 2000 I was so unbelievably happy. Finally I found a way to obtain all those ponies I ever wanted! my collection increased from about 200 to 830 right now (July 2005)...