Potpourri: safety may be overrated

Aug 20, 2023

Anybody remember Clackers, a toy from the late 1960s - early 1970s?

The first Clackers were two balls made from tempered glass. Each ball hung on a string connected to a round ring. The idea was to hold onto the ring and move your hand fast enough to get the two balls to smack together. (It’s hard to explain, but there’s videos on YouTube for anyone who might care enough to check it out.)

Clackers ended up getting pulled from the market because the force of the balls striking each other sometimes caused them to shatter, sending shrapnel across the room. Later, the manufacturers changed to acrylic plastic, but they too could shatter. The main attraction for me was the noise they made, resulting in my mom ordering me to “take it outside.”

I had a pair of purple clackers. I got very good at getting them to smack each other so fast they would hit together, both above and below my forearm.

My clackers didn’t shatter, but I did get injured. My right forearm was always purple from the bruising caused when a ball would smack into it at full speed.

My purple clackers also served another purpose: It was a “groovy” light fixture for my Barbie dolls. As the only girl in America whose parents wouldn’t get her a Barbie Dreamhouse (maybe an exaggeration), I had to create my own using the living room end tables.

Swag lights were really in at the time. About every new house had either an amber, green or some other color light suspended in a corner of the living room. I thought they were so cool that 20-some years ago we rented an early 1970s mobile home primarily because it had an amber swag light.

Speaking of Barbies, they were my favorite toys. My uncle gave me one in the early 1960s. She looked like the original Barbie doll created in 1959, but had a red tank swimsuit instead of the strapless Zebra-striped suit Margot Robbie wears at the beginning of the Barbie movie.

Every girl who came over to my house had a Barbie and we played with them until sixth grade or so. In comparison, sixth grade girls today are picking out prom dresses to wear to end of the school year events! In the 1990s I planned to get my 7-year-old niece a Barbie for her birthday, until her mom told me my niece had “outgrown Barbies a long time ago.”

Anyhow, here’s a few other favorite toys from back in the day.

Etch A Sketch — Remember the bright red casing that looked like a frame? It had two white buttons that you would turn to draw or right. About the best I could do was draw a basic block house.

Slinky — According to Wikipedia, “the Slinky is a helical spring toy that can travel down a flight of stairs end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with gravity and its own momentum.” Unfortunately, my Slinky seemed to be as uncoordinated as its owner. It would go down one step, divert course, stop and roll off. I, on the other hand, had a talent for falling down stairs, spraining an ankle or breaking my collarbone.

Hula hoop — Commercials back in the day made it look like twirling a hula hoop around your waist was simple; it wasn’t. I tried over and over to get it to spin, but instead it would clatter to the ground.

Baton — Just like many young girls dream of being a cheerleader, I wanted to be a majorette and attended a Twirling class after school when I was seven or eight. Unfortunately, I had two brothers who thought my baton was a weapon. At some point, mom hid it and there went my chance at the big time.

Toy guns — Although not socially correct today, toy guns were in most kids’ toy box 50-plus years ago, including western revolvers complete with a holster and cowboy hat. Toy Army gear was also popular, including plastic helmets, grenades and machine guns.

During the 1960s and 70s, kids still had the opportunity to be kids, with the opportunity to play and imagine life. Nowadays it seems that planned activities take up every hour of the day from preschool on up. And that’s a shame.

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