Toys From The 1970s

Toys From The 70s



Printed in Tinley Junction - October 27, 2011

Back in the stone age, the things that we had that passed for toys would amuse most youngsters today. Not only were they completely low tech, but dangerous in some manner that would not be acceptable today. But they were what we had to play with back then and we were darned grateful to have them. Here are the three that I remember the most:

Number one is the beloved Slinky. Now, there are still Slinky toys today. My young niece and nephew had a slinky that was made out of plastic and was a bigger than the original Slinky that I had as a kid. Mine was made of metal coil that could scratch. That was pretty much the premise of a Slinky toy, it was a long, metal coil. The things that were done with this toy (in addition to it going down the stairs) was moving it back and forth in between your hands. Making your Slinky go down the stairs was an event and I remember entertaining my sister with this at our house in Brementowne for long periods of time. That was pretty much how we had fun in the 1970s - we watched a metal coil go down the stairs. We never got hurt with the Slinky, however, because the average life expectancy of this toy, before one of the coils gets bent and it no longer does anything but get increasingly tangled, is about 24 hours.

Another toy that we really enjoyed was Silly Putty. This was, as might be guessed from the name, putty. This putty was not toxic, if you did not eat it. In order to be truly entertained by this toy, you had to have the Sunday Comic section of the newspaper. You needed the Sunday comics because they were in color. You pressed the putty to the paper and lifted off the ink from the comic. Then you smooshed it together and did it again. And again. And then you got bored and tried to eat it. The life expectancy for Silly Putty was pretty much on par with the Slinky.
Finally, there was the Etch A Sketch. Today, there are many toys of this sort, but the original Etch A Sketch was painted a lead based red and had those two knobs where you could move the lines, either horizontally or vertically. The trick with this toy was to try to write something coherent and also make a diagonal line or a circle. When you gave up, you shook the toy and it would revert back to the beginning and you had the chance to start all over again. Within an hour or so you would learn to write “Hello.” The Etch A Sketch lasted a bit longer than the Slinky and the Silly Putty, but sooner or later you would not be able to shake it back to a blank screen. Or you would realize that this was a bloody waste of time and toss the toy.