Ron Reiff
Looking back we were really lucky to have grown up when we did! One of the things we “Old Fogies” had were Fantastic Advertised Delights. Television was simple. Manufacturers could zero in on kids.
Saturday mornings they could run ads during kids’ programming and instantly create a demand. A demand that grew even bigger once just one kid in the neighborhood demonstrated it.
Kenner, Mattel, Lionel, Hubley, Tonka, and of course, Wham-0 were all competing to make the next big “Gotta Have.” Believe it or not, some of those toys are still around! The last time I was in Dreamboat, rubber band-powered gliders are still out there. Chemistry sets are still being made but they are a lot tamer than the ones we had.
Back in 1957, a group of marketing people from Wham-O watched a boy go by them pushing a hoop from a barrel down the street. With a flip of his wrist, he could keep the hoop upright as it skidded and rolled down the street. This inspired them to make a hoop out of plastic. It wasn’t until one of the ladies in the office from Hawaii tried to use her hips to get the device to spin that it became the “Hula Hoop.”
Wham-O introduced the hoop in the spring of 1958. Their entire inventory was sold by June. The hoop shortage opened the door for knock-offs. These were lighter and didn’t work as well as the brand-name version. Wham-O got production going full speed and you can still buy a Hula Hoop.
A quieter success for Wham-O back in ’64 was the “Super Ball.” A chemist named Norman Singley came up with a combination of polymers he called Zectron. The stuff made into a ball led to a really amazing toy! Have you ever played with one? If you could keep one bouncing in the same spot, they could go forever! Well…maybe not forever, but for a long time!
We were introduced to two ancient weapons that we loved to play with: boomerangs and YoYos! Duncan came out with ultimate models. The butterfly was the one that caught my eye. For a while, you just HAD to have one. A Big “D” was the ultimate.
Kat hats, sandals, water-pressure rockets, and many other fads made the time fly by. None were invented in Warren but they were as much a part of growing up in Warren as anything made here.
