The Hula Hoop
While we were overseas we had some tenants in our house. We arrived home to find they'd left a hula hoop upstairs. A hula hoop? Does anyone play with those anymore? Apparently they do.
However, according to Paul Little in a New Zealand magazine called North and South, the hula hoop is one of a number of novelty toys that were "hot for about a week-and-a-half." I hate to tell Mr Little, who may not be old enough to remember the time when the hula hoop was king, but the craze (which began in the 50s) lasted much longer than a week and a half. Twenty million were sold in the first six months, and you can still buy them new in shops today - as witness the one in our house. It's still there, by the way. The tenants left no forwarding address, so we'll just have to learn how to hula hoop again ourselves!
If you're keen on the hula hoop you can find classes on how to do it, or how to construct your own - they're not just made of plastic. Check out the Greek in the photo. As you can see you can even do it naked!
The Swingball
Again I have to contradict Mr Little. We've had a swingball almost constantly since they first arrived on the scene. When I say almost constantly, I mean that as soon as we wore one out, another tended to arrive for someone's birthday or Christmas. Not only are we an exception to Mr Little's claims, but in fact the swingball is now classed officially as one of the top ten best-selling toys of the last decade. And there are swingball teams by the score.
Quoits
Mr Little next tries to claim that quoits is the game equivalent of the one-night stand.
If he checked his facts he'd find this hard to prove. Not only has quoits in some form or other been around since before Christ, but it's still played extensively today, especially in England, where there are pub matches throughout the season.
Perhaps Mr Little's family had a short-lived love of quoits. Be that as it may, quoits has its own terminology, its own variations (Wales and Scotland tend to play a different version to England, for example), and there's even an indoor version (just as there is with bowls and cricket and netball). So much for being a one-day wonder.
Frisbees
Once again, Mr Little shows that he hasn't been doing his homework. The Frisbee first arrived - under its trademarked name - back in the late 50s. But college students had been throwing the leftover pie tins from the Frisbie pie company in New England for decades before that. And a visit to any beach site, or holiday camp, will show that the Frisbee hasn't at all lost its popularity. Furthermore, there's an ad on television at present which shows dogs catching Frisbees - something they seem to be particularly keen on doing, and very adept at.
Incidentally, at this point in his list, Mr Little reminds us that hula hoops and frisbees were made by the same company: Wham-O. They certainly thrived on the sales of these two ongoing toys.
Slipnslide
Next on the list is the Slipnslide, sometimes known as the Slip "n" Slide. Wham-O are associated with this product too, and if you thought it was old hat in any way, check out the six pages (at least) of photos on Flickr, where dozens of happy people in swimming togs and other gear are sliding their way down one of these wet and slippery items.
Super Soaker
The Super Soaker has been around since 1985, which makes it something of a baby compared to the other toys so far listed. However, it's just as popular. This Christmas, in our house, we gave all the adult males and boys either a Super Soaker or the child equivalent. They had a ball soaking each other (outside, mostly) between the first and second courses of the Christmas dinner. And in case anyone thinks it was sexist to give only the males these wonderful fun "weapons," the females got in on the act too, snatching guns off the males, or emptying buckets of water over them and each other.
Gutterboarding
Now this might be the first thing Mr Little mentions that he's actually right about. I'd never heard of a gutterboard, and even the Net didn't show up much information about one of them - in fact, it preferred to lead me in the direction of boards relating to roof gutters.
However, I did come across a site where you can actually see gutterboarding in action. It shows a number of youths sliding down double handrails on a board - usually at some speed. I recommend viewing it.
Other items
Mr Little includes a few other things in his list: the capdana, which I couldn't track down at all, though maybe someone else can enlighten me; the macarena, which isn't a toy or a sport, but a dance, as is the limbo, which he also mentions. Don't ask me what these were doing on his list. Whistling finned footballs came in for a look, as did catching things with Velcro gloves or bodysuits. For some reason above-ground pools aren't popular with him, nor blowguns. I'm not sure why anyone would regard the latter as a fad or craze, but apparently Mr Little does.
It seems to me that Mr Little has a bit of a bee in his bonnet about certain games: he doesn't like them, therefore they don't exist. Fortunately, thousands, even millions of other people do like them, and they certainly know they exist.
Mike Crowl also writes here.
