Currently browsing: Kids Stuff
What guy doesn’t remember the rush of opening a pack of baseball cards and finding his favorite player? What girl didn’t look at Barbie and fantasize about her dream date? We hold a special place in our hearts for the great things of childhood.
Kid Stuff: Yahtzee
You roll those five dice, hoping that five of a kind will appear during three rolls. That’s a “Yahtzee” – the...
Read MoreKid Stuff: Easy Bake Oven
When introduced in 1963, the Easy Bake Oven looked like a conventional oven (well, if ovens came in turquoise), used a light bulb as a heat...
Read MoreKid Stuff: Summer Camp
Several weeks after school lets out for the summer, a curious confluence of needs emerges. Parents need to get away from their kids, who...
Read MoreKid Stuff: Chatty Cathy
Toy makers had been trying to develop a talking doll for decades, but what they came up with was either cumbersome or unnatural. Then the...
Read MoreKid Stuff: Happy Meal
In 1977, McDonald’s was king of all it surveyed (sorry, Burger King, for the unfortunate analogy). The company knew that kids loved...
Read MoreKid Stuff: View-Master
The stereoscope, a way of viewing 3-D images, wasn’t a new thing when View-Master began producing its first viewers and disks. So...
Read MoreKid Stuff: Crayola Crayons
The chemical company Binney & Smith muddled along during the late 19th century, making shoe polish, printing ink, and stuff. Around the...
Read MoreKid Stuff: Charlotte’s Web
Isn’t it strange how one writer can produce works in several vastly different genres? E.B. White was a humorist (he co-wrote a parody...
Read MoreKid Stuff: Scrabble
Scrabble follows the pattern of a lot of board games. Invented by a creative mind. Failed to be sold to a major manufacturer. Creator keeps...
Read MoreKid Stuff: Raggedy Ann
Decades before Cabbage Patch, before Barbie, and before Betsy Wetsy, American girls had a favorite doll. She didn’t come with a birth...
Read More