Boy Scouts from the city were on a camping trip. The mosquitoes were so fierce, the boys had to hide under their blankets to avoid being bitten. Then one of them saw some lightning bugs and said to his friend,
"We might as well give up. They are coming after us with flashlights."
Hula-hoopIn 1964, Arthur Melin obtained a patent for the hula-hoop. An Australian visiting California told Melin that in his country, children twirled bamboo hoops around theirs waists in gym class. Melin, who started toy giant Wham-O in 1948 with his boyhood friend Richard Knerr with slingshots and named their mail-order company after the sound a slingshot made when its projectile struck a target. They branched into other sporting goods, including pellet guns, crossbows and daggers. They added toys in 1955, when building inspector Fred Morrison sold them a plastic flying disc he had developed after watching Yale University students toss pie tins. Wham-O began selling the disc they called the Pluto Platter two years later before modifying it and renaming it the Frisbee. |
