Slinkies
I miss Toys R Us. I enjoyed shopping there for my Grandkids – who are now all grown. They had literally acres of toys on display. When I was a kid, there weren’t many choices. But I, like most Boomer kids, did not lack for great toys. Slinkies, for example.
The Slinky was invented in the early1940s by a Naval Engineer, Richard T. James. It was a bit of physics genius as it could travel down a flight of stairs with the help of gravity and its own momentum. In its first 60 years, some 300 million were sold and it’s now in the Toy Hall of Fame.
The first Slinkies sold for a dollar each, but toy stores were skeptical. In 1945, the company received permission from the toy department at Gimbel’s to set up an inclined plane to demonstrate. They sold 400 Slinkies in 90 minutes.
I got my first Slinky for Christmas when I was about 5, and immediately sent it tumbling down the stairs at our house on Sewell Ave. in Raleigh, NC.
It was difficult to get the toy to go all the way down the long staircase as it usually petered out about halfway, but if you gave it a good start, it would sometimes spiral all the way down.
The only downside to a Slinky is that it often rested on the floor and was subject to being stepped on by unwary adults. Once a Slinky was even slightly bent, it was boots up. But in the coming years, other Slinkies would appear under the Christmas tree even though they generally met with the same fate.
It was an interesting toy, and they’re still made today, even in plastic, but you rarely see them on a child’s letter to Santa. Too boring for modern kids, I suppose, and that’s too bad.
