Today's children don't even know what this is....

[IcyPeas]

I, for one, remember these. They were fun.

Link to tweet

[Ocelot II]

1. I had one of those! I don't even remember what it's called, it's kind of a top, I think.

[AngryOldDem]

4. It's a top. Made by Fisher-Price, IIRC

I had one, a few centuries back.

[Ocelot II]

40. IIRC, it hummed if you made it go fast enough.

[AngryOldDem]

61. Yep.

And the images would get really blurry, and I’d let it wind down just enough and then pump that stick to get it going again. And the whirr....

You know, the coolest toys are really the simplest.

[Guilded Lilly]

2. I think that IS mine! Heh!

[soothsayer]

3. Seriously! Looks just like mine too!

[Chainfire]

5. I had the old fashion wooden ones that you wound with string and flung with a

flick of the wrist. I wore the nails off the bottoms of the old tops. I was good at it too!

[ironflange]

34. Those took a lot of practice

I was never much good at it.

[soldierant]

37. I believe the present day equivalent is

a fidget spinner.

Yes, I have one.

Please don't judge me.

[AngryOldDem]

6. That whole Twitter account is a trip.

Although mostly British, it’s jogging my memory about a lot of things.

(Yes, I’m old.)

[brush]

7. I remember. Today's kids, even some zoomers and young millennials...

can't operate a rotary phone.

[Stuart G]

9. I operate my "rotary phone" every day...Some don't even know what that is...

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. I received one at age 2, and played with it a lot!

Here's a picture of me, Christmas 1969. My father is barely seen in the background.

[IcyPeas]

10. what a great picture of you with this toy!!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. I must've broke it at some point, before the mid-70's.

I remember playing with other tops by that time, which spun much faster after pulling a cord.

[NoMoreRepugs]

11. IcyPeas taking some of us down memory lane - Thanks!!

[Dave in VA]

12. Yep!

Many an hour spent playing on the porch with that thing!

[BittyJenkins]

14. It even could be a singing top.

I remember them and we made sure our kids had one (probably from a garage sale)

[Arkansas Granny]

15. I had one that "hummed" if you got it up to the right speed.

[Ferrets are Cool]

16. It's amazing how little it took to entertain us. Remember jacks?

[Harker]

18. I remember them...

but never knew what they were for.

[Rebl2]

22. Also pick up sticks?

[electric_blue68]

31. I loved pick up sticks! We'd play them at...

Last edited Sun May 16, 2021, 11:05 PM - Edit history (1)

our cousin's house. I was pretty good at it.

Unfortunately as a side effect from (about 20 yrs ago) a ripped rotator cuff injury; the bone scar on my upper arm's upper most end will touch my clavicle when my arm is lifted to shoulder height resulting in usually tremours at time depending on exact position.
So I wouldn't be as good as I was.

[Ocelot II]

38. I got really good at jacks.

[yellowdogintexas]

55. I loved playing jacks, but hated when I stepped on one barefooted

The modern equivalent is a Lego.

[Ferrets are Cool]

62. LOL no kidding

Only thing worse is a sand spur.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Yes, and I bought one, 15 years ago, for my granddaughter.

[DemUnleashed]

19. Awww...

I remember this!!!

[Permanut]

20. I could make mine go a million miles an hour..

That was back in 1952. Not sure if I could do it now.

[Laffy Kat]

21. You can still find those in antique stores.

I believe they are considered collectible.

[Useless in FL]

23. I had one just like that!

The same colors and that same bunny rabbit. In mid to late 40's ....

[Generic Brad]

24. We were so easily amused

For 10 seconds, at least.

[twodogsbarking]

25. Made a weird noise as I recall

when you whacked your brother with it.

[PatrickforB]

27. Ha! and then he advanced on you with another toy, bent on revenge...

[PatrickforB]

26. Me. I had one every year until I was about 6 or 7. Maybe a bit older. We had

wooden string tops too - you'd wrap the string around the top, and then pull it to get it spinning. Then when the string came off, it kept spinning.

And, who could forget the old wooden Duncan yoyos?

[electric_blue68]

50. Yeah. I could hardly do any of the yo-yo tricks! : (

[PatrickforB]

58. LOL, yeah, all I could manage was walk the dog and around the world.

The real fancy stuff was quite beyond me.

[judesedit]

28. We did! My 4 brothers and I.

[Wounded Bear]

29. The lead-based paint on those was very tasty...

[yellowdogintexas]

30. I did! I think it was actually my dad's and I played

with it when I visited my grandmother.

[electric_blue68]

32. Either I or my cousin's had one when we were very young.

[NBachers]

33. And they sure don't know what this is.

[electric_blue68]

47. I don't think I know what that is. 🤔

[NBachers]

59. Smirkymonkey has it right- push the plunger to get it into a soda bottle; let it go to seal it.

[electric_blue68]

60. thanks to you both...

I wonder when they stopped using them?

I could have been a toddler when they went out of use.
Not given soda quite that young! 😄

Just made a screenshot. Going to ask my cousin if she remembers them. 👍

[smirkymonkey]

48. For soda bottles?

To keep the soda from going flat. I remember those. At least that is what we used them for. We got large bottles of soda in wooden cases and this was before screw caps, so these were used to keep the soda fizzy.

[Mr.Bill]

35. How about Gyroscopes?

[Ocelot II]

39. Had one of those, too. And a Slinky, the metal kind

that made a jangly sound as it slunk down the stairs.

[Mr.Bill]

43. Battery sales back then must have been

1/100th of what they are now.

[electric_blue68]

52. Loved the slinky

[electric_blue68]

49. Yes, but I don't think I tried the string trick....Cool!

[Mr.Bill]

54. I liked when he put it in the box.

Never seen that before.

[electric_blue68]

56. I've never seen that...

[electric_blue68]

36. How about Tinker Toys, or the little sparkler wheel "pump"

Last edited Sun May 16, 2021, 11:02 PM - Edit history (1)

The sparkler thing was pwhere a metal wheel painted with a spiral that had two curved "windows" one covered with red cellophane, the other one in the opposite side with blue - that was attached to a base that had a rough sort of flange on opposite sides that the prongs on the underside of the wheel by the "windows" would scrape against the rough part as you pumped the wheel to turn - that produced sparks that looked red, or blue because of the cellophane, and white where they came further.

I know that Tinker toys still exist. 😁

[Ocelot II]

41. I'd forgotten about the sparkler thingy, but I had one.

And I loved kaleidoscopes, the kind that had chips of colored glass in the part of the cylinder that you could rotate.

[electric_blue68]

45. yeah, I remember those kalidiscopes!

I loved just about all the different varieties that came after those. ❤️🙂

[Mr.Bill]

44. I was a Lincoln Log guy myself.

I had a bunch of those and played with them a lot.

[electric_blue68]

46. I think I had lincoln logs myself. But then came....

Legos! 💖😄

Which I rebought like 9-10 years first at Toys R Us, and then at the ❤️ Lego stores! I have to get them out again when I decluttered more.

I might even get a Tinker Toy set again.

[yellowdogintexas]

53. we had Tinker TOys and Lincoln Logs both

Just about the only toys my sister and I could play with together without a war.

Do they even sell them any more?

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

42. Boy, I LOVED these! I had a couple when I was about 4-5 years old. Nowadays, kids think

they're being punished if they're told to go outside to play. This generation won't live as long a life because they sit for hours texting, playing online games and eating all sorts of junk food, i.e., cheetos, doritos, hotpockets, burger, etc ad nauseum.

[smirkymonkey]

51. I know, it's so strange. On nice days, if we weren't in school, we would play outside all day and

didn't even want to come in for lunch. And we hardly ever snacked. It wasn't really a thing unless you were bored.

I see how my siblings kids and their friends are and it is kind of surprising to me. Fortunately they are all pretty active outside and involved with sports year-round, but I am amazed and the snacking habits of kids these days.

It's like they can't go ANYWHERE without snacks. They are all thin right now (at least my nieces and nephews are) but it kind of sets them up for bad habits in adulthood where they always need to have some kind of food to get them through between meals.

The thing is, I don't even think they need it, it's just a habit for a lot of kids these days or they eat when they are bored or because it tastes good, and usually it's not the healthiest stuff either.

[csziggy]

57. Yes! My older sisters had one and I inherited it when they got too old for it

Same for most of my toys, so I had late 1940's toys rather than 1950s ones. By the time my little sister came along, most of the old toys had worn out so she got new toys.