The "Toys From The Past...How Many Do You Remember?" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Talking with a few friends on the phone about the gifts that we got when we were children back in the 1940s and 1950s.  Very few had batteries to them and not a single one had any type of computer chip that had to be programmed to make it work.  What a difference a generation, or even two or three generations, makes even in something as simple as a toy.  See if you can remember some of the toys that follow.  Perhaps you may still have a few of them in a closet or old chest somewhere in your home.  Or, perhaps you may have never heard of some of them and are viewing them for the first time.  Your age will be difference in the types of toys you are viewing.  Enjoy...and Merry Christmas from our house to your house!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The Teddy Bear first was developed in the early 1900s. It was named 
after President Teddy Roosevelt.  Who didn't have a Teddy Bear?

Wooden trains have been around for 120 years, but Lionel gave the 
world the first electric train.  At first it was made for store-
front displays, but was so popular that shoppers demanded them.
Lionel still sells trains today.

Lincoln Logs were developed in 1916 by John Lloyd Wright, second
son of the well-known architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  I loved playing with
them and still have a set in my closet that my grandkids played with years
ago.  They were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999.

The Radio Flyer wagon came along in 1927.  The wagon wasn't new, but had
been made from wood for years before Antonio Pasin built one in his shop in
1917.  Took about 10 years before it became popular as the little red wagon.

Plastic Army Men began fighting battles in backyards all over
the world in 1938.  The molded plastic men were sold in buckets
and bags in a variety of colors, but mostly green.  My father always
managed to run over them with his lawn mower.  Eventually cowboys,
dinosaurs, knights and more were made in plastic.  Believe it or not,
last year they began making Army Women and selling them in bags.

The first stereoscopes were made in 1832.  They showed two images
unified into a single 3D image.  Then in 1939 View Master came along
and incorporated a technique with Kodachrome color film
to present full-color images on round reels that you could put
in the View Master.  

The Slinky was invented by Richard T. James in 1945.
One of the most fun and interesting toys I can remember playing with
when I was a child.  Spent many a day on the wooden steps of our
home on Queen Street in Lancaster, PA.

Mound Metalcraft was created in 1946 and created garden implements.
They eventually began to make toys and changed their name in 1955 to Tonka Toys.
Eventually that company was purchased by Hasbro and began a licensing
deal with Funrise Toys to manufacture and distribute Tonka trucks.  I can remember
having a Tonka metal truck and bought them for my two sons when they were young.

Silly Putty came about in 1949.  It is an elastic solid that's adhesive, but can also
bounce.  The material has ingredients that help it maintain its cohesion, rather
than melting in fluid.  It was first invented during WWII as the Allies looked
for alternatives to rubber.  It wasn't used as a toy until Ruth Fallgatter found
out about the material and began selling it in her toy store in 1949.  

Legos were created by carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen.  He began making
them in 1949.  It was easily one of the most popular toys in history with more
than 600 billion Lego pieces produced by 2015.  Lego is the world's most
powerful brand.  In 2012 it was determined that you could stack 375,000 Lego
bricks atop one another before the bottom one succumbed to pressure and broke.

But, the top is one of the oldest known toys, having existed for thousands
of years.  Variations of the top have been found in archaeological excavations.
Different versions, like the dreidel, have significance to different cultures.