We were a very young couple just starting our lives together when we first saw the little blue pony. He sat in the store window just waiting for someone to take him home. We had already purchased Christmas toys for our little boy who was about three years old, but the pony just kept calling to us. Finally, one day we went in the store to look more closed and see if we could afford the little fellow. He had even more personality when we examined him closely, but his price tag made us turn away. He just cost too much money and we had recently purchased our first little three bedroom home. The toys we had hidden away would just have to be enough.

As Christmas approached we both tried to forget about the little blue pony. Yet, his store home was right near our grocery store and we had to pass by his window often. Finally, on Christmas Eve day, my husband suggested we take one last look and see if someone had purchased the little blue pony or if he had been marked down. But, there he sat waiting, waiting, waiting for some child to take him for a ride. That year there were no last minute Christmas specials at the store where the pony lived, but we bought him anyway. We just couldn’t leave him alone to watch as other lessor toys found their way under children’s Christmas trees.

Brad, Garland, TX, 1973

So, on Christmas morning about 1973, the little blue pony found his home under our Christmas tree in Garland, Texas. As the years ticked by, he was well ridden by our little boy and then his sister who was born much later.

Kim, Centerville, Ohio, 1977

It seemed, however, that my husband and I loved that pony even more than our children did.

One year, when we lived in Alexandria, Louisiana, I was trying to hurry along with my Spring cleaning and put the little blue pony in the stack of belongings that went to the New to You thrift store. When my husband found out I had donated that pony, he went right down to the store and got him back. What was I thinking? Since that time, the little blue pony has moved with us four times, but remained safely stored without worry of going again to any thrift store.

This week, the little blue pony was pulled out of storage and cleaned. It’s amazing just how good he still looks. Except for the teeth marks on his rockers where one of our puppies chewed the wood, he might pass for just a few years old. No one would guess that he is 37 years old. His revival marks the passage of time as a new little boy takes hold of his reins. The daughter, not yet born when we got the blue pony, has brought us a grandboy to pet and rock the little blue pony. It appears that after all these years, the pony we couldn’t afford can still find his way into our hearts.