Toy Collector Magazine

There's been a lot of debate over reading online or digitally vs. having that magazine, newspaper or book on your lap. When Amazon's Kindle first came out people were calling it the "END OF THE PRINTED PAGE" and so forth. Digital devices are cool, but there's still great appeal to the intimacy of handling paper. I think the two will always coexist.

The analogy I think of immediately is computer games vs. board games. In 1982 Nintendo’s Donkey Kong had just been released and was an instant hit in arcades, while Pac Man, which had been launched as a coin-operated game just two years prior, continued to rise in popularity. Handheld electronic games like Milton Bradley’s Simon and Mattel’s Electronic Quarterback led the plugged-in, battery-operated revolution in games. And it was around this time that toy analysts called the trend "THE END OF BOARD GAMES!" Then Trivial Pursuit took the world by storm. From Timeless Toys:

In Steven L. Kent’s book, The Ultimate History of Video Games, Ray Kassar, the former president and CEO of Atari is quoted as saying, “In 1982 we shipped 12 million Pac-Man cartridges. It was a record. I mean, to ship 12 million of one product at a retail price of $25.75 was extraordinary.” Little did he know that just two years later, Selchow & Righter would sell 20 million copies of Trivial Pursuit at a retail price of $29.95.

20 million copies in one year! After Trivial Pursuit came Pictionary, then Balderdash, then Taboo, then Apples to Apples, then...

The death of board games hasn't happened yet.

Why bring this up? I was recently interviewed by journalist Sharon Korbeck Verbeten for one of the nicest looking online magazines I've ever seen called Toy Collector. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a nice read. Turn er, click to page 74 to read about the Top 10 Toys of All-Time!

Ex-Kenner Designers Find Gold in 'Dead Man's Chest'

When I say "Kenner" what's the first toy to pop into your mind? If you're over 50, it's probably Spirograph or the Give-A-Show Projector. But if you were a child of the late '70s, then you undoubtedly thought Star Wars.

Kenner's line of action figures and vehicles based on the George Lucas space epic were produced by a talented group of designers working for the legendary Cincinnati-based toy company. Now, some 30 years later, many of the same artists are at it again -- this time on a freelance basis -- lending their considerable talents to design the toys based on Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and the other Pirates of the Caribbean. Check out this article in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

I Spy

Wild Planet's cool line of surveilence toys makes Forbes.com.

Super = Timeless

My daughter has been afflicted with an abhorrent chromosome she undoubtedly got from me. It’s the one that whispers to her, "collect…you must collect…." One of her prize compilations began when I gave her an original 1965 Super Ball. When she received a new “high-bounce ball” at a birthday party a short time later, the acquisitions began in earnest. She traded parts of her lunch away to friends at school, she let it be known to her aunts and uncles and she negotiated with me, all in the hopes of scoring new spheres of polybutadiene. At first she kept them in a simple box, but my recent trip to a golf store’s liquidation sale resulted in her new display shelf pictured above.

I will be joining a discussion on Evergreen Brands at this year’s American International Toy Fair. In preparation for my talk, I will be considering Wham-O’s Super Ball. 2005 marked the 40th year since the introduction of the original high-bounce ball and when you consider the fact that you can now get them for 25 cents at nearly every Wal-Mart and K-Mart in the country, the Super Ball’s staying power truly is remarkable. They sold six million of them in 1965. Super Ball (and its many knock-offs) are ubiquitous today, because of its uniqueness in 1965. A rubber ball that could bounce over a house!? It was just too super to believe.

I will post more on this discussion after the show, but if you just can't get enough of the "MOST FANTASTIC BALL EVER CREATED BY SCIENCE!" then go here!

T.O.T.Y. Awards

There's Emmy, Tony, Oscar and now Toty! It's the Toy of the Year Awards and the nominees have been announced by the Toy Industry Association, the folks that put on the awards each year. Check out all the nominees at Playthings Magazine.

Here are the toys that got my vote!

INFANT/PRESCHOOL TOY OF THE YEAR
Weebles Weebly Wobbly Tree House — Playskool
Playskool goes old school with the ones that wobble but don't fall down!

GIRL TOY OF THE YEAR
Pixel Chix — Mattel
I first saw these "virtual girlfriends" at Mattel's toy fair last year. Very cool!

BOY TOY OF THE YEAR
Star Wars Ultimate Darth Vader Voice Changer — Hasbro
"Luuuuke! I am your FAAATHER!"

GAME OF THE YEAR
Apples to Apples — Out of the Box
You've got to check this game out. So simple. So fun.

OUTDOOR TOY OF THE YEAR
Banzai Falls Water Slide — Toy Quest
What says "fun" more than a 19' inflatable water slide in your own backyard?

EDUCATIONAL TOY OF THE YEAR
FLY Pentop Computer — LeapFrog Enterprises
A pen that coaxes and encourages kids as they learn to write? WRITE ON!

ACTIVITY TOY OF THE YEAR
Magic Glow Doodle Bear — Play Along
Who would have thought to mix a drawing toy with plush? Neat!

ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT TOY OF THE YEAR
20Q — Radica Games
It's almost eerie how well this thing can guess what you are thinking.

MOST INNOVATIVE TOY OF THE YEAR
FLY Pentop Computer — LeapFrog Enterprises
Sorry to be repetitive, but this thing is way cool. I just wish it came with more paper.

SPECIALTY TOY OF THE YEAR
Uglydoll — Prettyugly
I love the muted colors and shapes. They are very well made and so UGLY, they're cute.

PROPERTY OF THE YEAR
Star Wars — Hasbro Inc./LucasFilm
May THE FORCE be with you in 2006 like it was in 2005.

VH1's I Love Toys Poll

If you love toys than you simply must go and vote for your favorite at VH1's I Love Toys. The TV show of the same name will be airing sometime this spring. Stay tuned for updates here as VH1 covers the TOP 100 TOYS OF ALL TIME!

Vote Big Wheel!

The Origin(s) of Chess

On a recent radio interview on WBZ in Boston, a caller requested information on the origin of chess. I recalled reading that Chess came from India, but the caller thought China. One of the reasons I decided to cover only the playthings that I could trace back to an individual(s) in Timeless Toys is that ancient playthings tend to be hard to nail down. Chess is a prime example.

Bruce Whitehall is his excellent book Games: American Boxed Games and Their Makers that chess originated in either India in 600 A.D. or China before 200 A.D. I hang my hat on India because a game called Chaturanga from India can be called a "form" of chess. While in Persia another form or variant of chess was called Chatrang. These games evolved into the modern game of chess.

For some great stories on the early years of chess, I also recommend the book The Greatest Games of All Time by Matthew Costello. In this book you'll learn cool stories like how an elephant became a bishop! In India, the Muslims eventually banned the piece that was originally an elephant because it was against Islam, which bans physical representations. The piece became a minaret-shaped piece with a nick in it. Costello points out that, "Later, when Europeans saw this piece, the pointed top with a nick reminded them of a bishop's mitre, hence the new name."

In the book you'll also learn how the game was banned in 1291 by the Archbishop of Canterbury. And like Timeless Toys, Costello sheds light on the people behind the game with some profiles on legendary chess players including Paul Morphy, Jose Raul Capablanca and Bobby Fischer. CHECK it out.

More in Store

The toy world needs more independent game and puzzle stores. This one looks like a nice one. Check out Eureka Puzzles!

Oooooo... It's Magic!

This picture is from the Magic 8 Ball chapter of The Playmakers. Yes, I sometimes went overboard in the collection of toys for the book, but hey, that's one of the reasons people love it -- 530 weird pictures like this.

The Magic 8 Ball has racked up more than its share of imitators over the years. There’s Madame Zelda’s Crystal Ball, The Orb, and even the Q Ball, which talks. The Sarcastic Ball answers, “YEAH, AND I’M THE POPE”; and the Sunshine Smiley Face responds with compliments like “YOUR BREATH IS SO MINTY! -- The Playmakers

I'm selling off all these knock-off fortune telling balls and even a few original Magic 8 Balls in My Ebay Store.

It's National Chemistry WeeK

In honor of National Chemistry Week, (October 16 - 23rd), let's look at the chemistry that makes...

Crayola waxy

It all started with Edwin Binney, and his cousin Harold Smith. They owned a booming school supplies company, which meant that thousands of boxes containing the company’s various products needed to be marked and inventoried using ink labeling markers, which were common at the time, but messy. Not necessarily looking to invent a new product, but more interested in solving an untidy problem, Binney and Smith developed a mess-free marking crayon by mixing carbon black with paraffin wax. To make the marker clean and easy to use they wrapped it in a paper sleeve.

The chemistry of the Crayola is one of the most guarded secrets in the toy industry – for it’s that exact mixture of colorant, talc, and paraffin wax that gives Crayola crayons their color, quality of line and, of course their distinctive aroma.

Silly Putty stretchy

Technically, it is a liquid containing long molecule chains called polymers which can slip and slide over one another and flow like a liquid. But wait! These polymers are linked and if rapid force is applied to them they will become tangled, catch on each other, resist force and act like an elastic solid. This why you can BOUNCE a wad of Silly Putty like a rubber ball. Extremely rapid force will cause the polymers to snag even more and break apart like a solid.

This is why a ball of Silly Putty will settle into a blob if left alone, spring back if bounced and shatter if struck with a hammer. That’s why when it first came out it was called “The Real Solid-Liquid.”

Super Ball bouncy

Chemist Norm Stingley took a synthetic rubber (polybutadiene), mixed it with natural rubber from rubber trees and then compressed it under 2,500 pounds per square inch with explosive results.

“The first ball I made blew up!” he told me. “I compressed it and as soon as I opened the mold this stuff immediately tried to get out and tore itself to pieces! I later got patents on the molding procedure because you had to do it correctly. You have to just barely fill the mold.”

The very first Super Balls would break apart due to the stress of all that bouncing. Over time the chemistry was altered even more by adding vulcanizing agents. These create chemical reactions that causde cross-linking of the polymer chains, increasing strength and resiliency.

Lionel Trains smoky

Realism is the magic behind model railroading and after World War II chemists working at Lionel figured out a way to make locomotives smoke like their real counterparts. Ammonium nitrate pellets were dropped down the engine’s stack and came to rest on a specially made 16–18-volt light bulb (which also doubled as the engine’s headlight). Once the pellet heated up, it liquefied and smoke billowed out with realism. The problem was that ammonium nitrate was found to be unstable. It is essentially a miniature fertilizer bomb! So chemists perfected new pellets that would vaporize with the use of a wire heating element inside of a bulb. Today, a liquid is used.

Nerf Ball spongy

It's a solid, spongy cellular material produced by the reaction of polyester with a diisocyanate while carbon dioxide is liberated by the reaction of a carboxyl with the isocyanate. What? I thought the liberation from polyester was the death of disco or something?

To summarize, polyester resin reacts with a compound while simultaneously a gas (CO2) is released by another reaction. It is this gas that creates these open pockets within the polyurethane which in turn make the material soft and light. Yes, chemistry gave us the Nerf ball.

Now go play with some test tubes!

Maternal Instincts

Are you a Mom? Are you an inventor? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then you need to check out this site. Maybe you have an idea for the NBT (next big thing) in toys, like Soony Williams.

Erector Auction

PR Newswire is reporting that legendary Chicago newsman John Drury will auction off his amazing collection of A.C. Gilbert Erector sets, Mysto Magic sets, and other Gilbert toys on October 9, 2005. If you can't afford to buy these early, complete sets, some of which are estimated to go for $20,000 or more, you can spend $75 and go to the auction preview party.

Gnip Gnop is kcab!

Leave it to Marvin Glass. His games might go away, but they never die. His design firm invented Gnip Gnop (Ping Pong spelled backwards), the ping pong ball shooting game. Released by Parker Brothers in 1971, Gnip Gnop was a table top favorite throughout the early '70s. Now the fun is back, courtesy of Fundex.

Knucklebones

There is a great new magazine to which any board game geek simply must subscribe. Check out the new Knucklebones Magazine! If you hustle, you might still be able to pick up a copy of the premiere issue.

Got Game?

It's hard to catch lightning in a bottle. It's really hard to do it twice. Witness these sophomore efforts that failed.

Alfred Butts was the genius behind Scrabble when it hit big in 1948. In 1985, the people at Selchow & Righter thought it was time for him to create another game, and so they released Alfreds Other Game.

No game sold faster than Trivial Pursuit did in 1984, with a reported 20 million pumped out the doors of Selchow & Righter. Once again, the legendary game company thought it prudent to take the three inventors, John Haney, Chris Haney and Scott Abbott, and put them to work on another game. The result was the gorgeous (but ghastly), The World According to UBI.

Even though he didn't "invent" Monopoly, Charles Darrow certainly developed it, and in so doing, became one of the first millionaire board game inventors. Parker Brothers broke the bank with Monopoly in 1935, so in 1936 they tried to make a killing in stocks with Darrow's Bull and Bears. They didn't.

The lesson learned? This biz is hard, even for hugely successful inventors. Which makes the following creative geniuses even more amazing.

In 1959 Harold Von Braunhut conceived of an idea he called Instant Life. By 1962 it was released under a new name, Sea-Monkeys. Two years later, he put another toy novelty in the back of a gazillion comic books. Perhaps you'll remember X-Ray Spex.

In 1949 Eddy Goldfarb gave the world Yakity-Yak Talking Teeth. 18 years later he and Rene Soriano invented Battling Tops and the classic Kerplunk.

In 1966 Ralph Baer conceived of playing games on a standard TV set. Over the next six years, he worked towards producing the first video game system, succeeding with the release of Magnavox's Odyssey, the predecessor to Pong. Then in 1978, Baer and Howard Morrison of Marvin Glass & Associates invented Simon. Two all-time electronic classics!

Marvin Glass & Associates was responsible for many hits, and Burt Meyer was one of the most prolific of MGA's designers. He invented or co-invented Mouse Trap, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Lite Brite and Toss Across.

Check out the above games and novelties, originally used for the production of The Playmakers, now up for auction in my Ebay store.

Cabbage Patch and Other Comeback Kids

I recently spoke with Jennifer Ginsberg of the Charleston Gazette about Transformers, Care Bears, Teddy Ruxpin and the rest of the '80s toys that are back on toy store shelves.

Classic Toys

I met a collector who's interested in "first edition" games. I found this page for him from the Toy Industry Association. If, like him, you want to know the year a classic plaything was introduced, this chart will tell you.

The Pez Palace

Someone e-mailed about PEZ. I tried in vain to get a tour of the Pez Factory in Orange, Connecticut when I was up there visiting the Wiffle Ball, Inc., but alas, they turned me away. The Pez people are private. The next best place to go is The Burlingame Pez Museum.

If you're in Minnesota next week, check out the MN PEZCon August 11-13th in Bloomington. November 3-5th is when the PEZ in the Sun Gathering is taking place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Since I know there are a lot of you out there, allow me to dispense some fun facts from The Playmakers:

Pez Debut: 1927
American Debut: 1952
Inventor: Edward Haas III
Company: Pez Candy, Inc.

• Because company records have never been released to the public, no one knows for sure how many Pez dispenser models have been made. Estimates range from 250 to nearly 300.
• Approximately 35 dispensers are released each year.
• There never was an Elvis Pez dispenser made for consumers, but when a handmade prop appeared in the movie The Client, it sent the collector community into a frenzy. There have been Elvis sightings ever since.
• A quick search on eBay, the premier online auction website, turned up 3,695 auctions for Pez paraphernalia. Founded in 1995 by programmer Pierre Omidyar, eBay has nearly 45 million registered users and growing. How did it all start? As a home page Omidyar set up so that his girlfriend could sell some of her Pez collection. Add “The candy that launched a billion bids” to the Pez resume.
• The Pez Space Gun was released in 1956 and remained on the market until the mid-60s when it was replaced by the Pez Candy Shooter (modeled after a .32 caliber pistol). Finally in the early ’80s, when Star Wars and its sequels fueled the space craze, Pez introduced its second version of a Space Gun.

Toy Exhibit in Paradise

As suggested by an old friend, we stopped by "Playing for Keeps: Treasured Toys from the Past," an exhibit on display in the Walter Greer Gallery at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina on Hilton Head Island. We were on our way back home and were happy to find it fancy and free. It runs through the end of August. Highlights include the incredible 1930s Bing Fire Truck pictured above, and more, including:

A collection of Lincoln Logs, including an old set with Abe on the cover, Cracker Jack boxes with a collection of prizes, and a nice display of Tinkertoys.

This German-made toy horse from the 1940s did double duty. It was a rocking horse or a roll-along riding toy when the rockers were removed.

There was quite a few war-related toys as well. World War II spawned oddities in play, like this picture book. B is for Bombs! If you're on Hilton Head, check it out.

The Holey Grail

The other definition of the word grail is "the object of a prolonged endeavor." For me, that’s the Wiffle ball. I’ve been playing with this humble hunk of white plastic for 35 years, so imagine my delight in planning a visit to the mother factory.

The planning started soon after my July 11th issue of Sports Illustrated arrived. You know you’re into toys when the first thing you notice on this cover is not Jennie Finch but what she’s holding. “We got a ton of calls,” Wiffle Ball's current leader David J. Mullany said of the SI cover. “It was great.” I had interviewed David and his brother Stephen a number of times for The Playmakers so I felt comfortable calling him up and asking if we could come over and play.

The first thing you see when you exit highway 34 in Shelton, Connecticut is the Wiffle Ball sign on the side of a small, brick building. We were greeted by David A. Mullany (who was 13 years old in 1952 when he inspired his dad, David N. Mullany, to invent the Wiffle Ball), and his sons David J. and Stephen.

The Wiffle Ball office is covered wall-to-wall with Wiffle Ball history, cartoons featuring the Wiffle ball and articles on the family business. We chatted for a while and then headed out to the factory where every Wiffle ball is still made.

They start with plastic pellets that are melted down and “shot” into an injection molding machine. Each hemisphere (one with holes and one without) is molded separately. The two hemispheres are then joined by a heat sealing machine and Viola! -- the finished Wiffle Ball is boxed and then shipped all over the world.

We stopped just long enough for a picture at the end the tour and then hit the road again. Afterall the Mullanys had balls to make. How cool is it to get to Wiffle while you work?

Farming for Fun

In Florida we have palm trees, white sand beaches and sunshine, on the good side, and shark attacks, hurricanes and fire ants on the bad. I've never been bitten by a shark, the hurricanes could have been worse and fire ants? Well, it's a constant battle for who owns my lawn. Right now they are winning.

So seeking refuge, I went to a church picnic yesterday. I sat on concrete (I thought it was safe) and chatted with friends over mouthfuls of potato salad and hotdogs, when something decided to take a mouthful of me. Ants have no respect for size.

Today I'd like to pay tribute to Milton Levine, a man who, 49 years ago, had an idea inspired by ants. If only I could be so positive. From The Playmakers:

On July 4, 1956, during an Independence Day picnic in Southern California, Milton Levine made a discovery. The kids were playing and everyone was relaxing … except for the ants. Beside the pool, the little workers were diligently going about their antly business, unnoticed by everybody except Milton. As he watched, he recalled his boyhood in Pennsylvania, where he would scoop up a mound of ants in a Mason jar and watch them dig tunnels. “It just came to me,” he said. “Why not build an ant observation toy?”

Since that July 4th day back in 1956, over 20 million Ant Farms have been sold, much to the amazement of the company’s patriarch. “I thought it would be good for maybe two years,” Milton confessed. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would sell for this long.” Levine is retired now at the age of 89, but still very active and very passionate about his ants. Scientists may tout their ability to lift over fifty times their own body weight, an impressive exploit to be sure, but Milton Levine has discovered their most amazing feat yet.

“I love ants,” he said to me. “They put my kids through college.”

Happy Independence Day!

Just when you thought it was safe...

The hit toy of 1998 gets an upgrade. Furby is back.

Dad's Day Toy Tales

With June 19th fast approaching, I thought I'd share a few anecdotes of paternal creativity.

David Mullany was concerned that his 13-year old son would hurt his arm trying to throw a curve ball, so he set out to invent a ball that would curve on its own. In 1953, this father and son team gave the world the Wiffle ball.

Jack Odell's young daughter had a "show and tell" event at school where the toys and trinkets the kids could present were limited in size -- they had to fit in a matchbox. Odell made her a tiny steam roller vehicle crafted out of brass. When all the kids wanted a tiny roller too, Odell's company obliged, giving the world the first Matchbox vehicles.

Robert Carrier came home one day to find his 10-year old son Mike sliding on their slick, concrete driveway which he had wetted down with a hose. Appropriately concerned, Carrier set out to give his son a safer surface on which to slide and invented the Slip 'N Slide water slide in 1961. I interviewed Mike Carrier for the book: "My dad always told me that I was the inventor of the Slip 'n Slide because of what we did in the driveway," Mike Carrier said. "Of course, he was the real inventor … and a loving father."

John Lloyd Wright accompanied his famous father Frank Lloyd Wright on a visit to Tokyo in 1916 to observe the construction of the famed architect's Imperial Hotel. The building utilized an interlocking beam design known as "floating cantilever construction." This design feature intrigued John and as he watched, mesmerized by the site of the huge timbers being stacked into place, he conceived the idea that eventually became Lincoln Logs.

Darrow Monopoly Game for Sale

Many Monopoly collectors, after reading The Playmakers, longed for the rare "black box" edition of the game that appears in the book. This is the last edition of the game produced by Charles Darrow before he licensed the game to Parker Brothers in 1935. Darrow’s name and address appears on the rules as shown above. Another neat fact is that the border line on the property cards matches the color of the property. In later editions this bordering line is black.

The bad news is that my version of the game is not for sale. I take it on TV shows to show the beginnings of the biggest-selling commercial game in history (and of course to promote how cool the book is -- I’m no fool). The good news is that I found one for you for sale on eBay. Be ready to sell Boardwalk to be able to afford it though. At this writing it is up to $1,025.

UPDATE: The bidding closed at $3,550, but the reserve was not met. Stay tuned to see if it gets relisted.

UPDATE 2: Here it is again.

The Original Talkin' Teddy Bear is Back

Cabbage Patch Kids, Strawberry Shortcake, Transformers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are all currently on toy store shelves. Can parachute pants and mullets be far behind? Now add Teddy Ruxpin to the list of '80s comeback kids. Here's a recent article on the hit toy that Worlds of Wonder originally released in 1985.

Balancing Act

I never had a toy gyroscope as a kid, but I sure had fun playing with the one pictured above. I rushed right home today to try it out after having a gyroscopic epiphany -- more about that later. Without too much trouble I had this old science gadget performing its "balancing sideways on a string" trick. It was sooooo cool.

Elmer Sperry patented the first gyroscope in 1908. Beginning in the 1920s, an Indianapolis business called L.J. Hurst Manufacturing Company made toy gyroscopes. After Word War II, the Chandler Manufacturing Company made “Hurst” gyroscopes and sold them to the Baby Boomer generation. In 1982, Tedco, Inc. bought the Chandler Company, where they still make toy gyroscopes today.

Most of us have flown in airplanes which use gyroscopic technology for guidance and stability in flight, but you can't feel the gyroscopic effects while seated in a commercial airliner. For a real hands-on experience I highly recommend you jump in feet first...

"Look, No Hands!"

My father-in-law, my wife and I took a tour of downtown Sarasota today on the" Segway Human Transporter.":http://www.segway.com/ For those of you who remember being awestruck holding and balancing that spinning toy gyroscope in your hand when you were a kid, you simply owe it to yourself to take a ride on one of these contraptions. You move forward or back by the slighest shift in weight from your heels to the balls of your feet. You are balanced by not one, but five gyroscopes. Being a tinkerer, I actually tried to fall off it at one point, rocking back and forth to see just how far those gyros would go to compensate for my shinanigans. The Segway stood the test, as did I, upright throughout.

We toured with the Florida Ever-Glides, paying $59 for a two hour tour. The owner, Tom Jacobson, told us that his company was the first to offer Segway HT tours and that now there are over 50 such outfits across America. I found tours available in Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, Washington, Paris, Minneapolis, and San Francisco.

And as if that weren't enough, gyroscopes actually prove that God exists!
I love the Internet.

Happy 75th Fisher-Price

Herman Fisher and Irving Price founded Fisher-Price in 1930. To commemorate the milestone of 75 years in the toy biz, the company is partnering with some cool companies to bring back some old favorites. According to this article in the Chicago Sun Times:

"In celebration of Fisher-Price's 75th anniversary, Sababa Toys has obtained a licensing agreement to reproduce Dr. Doodle and Snoopy Sniffer, pull toys that came out around 1938."

Here's Snoopy!

Post Cards from Play Paradise

I am selling some of the memorabilia I've collected in the writing and research of The Playmakers on eBay. Along with the Flexible Flyer post card pictured above, check out these cool collector's items.

Crayola Crayon Box of 64 with a Built-in Sharpener Ad
Lionel Train Brochure featuring Mickey Mouse
Frisbie Pie Truck Post Card -- Frisbee History
Lilli Movie Brochure -- Barbie History
Beanie Babies Ad -- Full page in USA TODAY when the craze was red hot
Bild Lilli doll -- Barbie History
Volland Raggedy Ann doll -- great doll with patent date of 1915
Ideal Teddy's Bear -- great old bruin

Historic Monopoly Auction

Professor Ralph Anspach's collection of historic Monopoly research is up for auction on eBay. Details on the contents of the collection are available at Thomas E. Forsyth's website.

You'll need to be a Rich Uncle Pennybags, because at last look the bidding was over $13,000!

UPDATE: The final selling price was $19,422.00!

WBZ Questions... and ANSWERS!

While I was on WBZ radio in Boston with Paul Sullivan tonight, callers asked and I promised to answer. So without further ado...

The game of Jacks comes from the old game called Jackstones. In ancient Greece it was called Knucklestones because the Greeks used sheep bones as the implements. Later they were made of case iron and then some cheaper metal like zinc. The rubbery plastic ones you can find nowadays (as this father of two little girls can attest) are MUCH nicer to step on with bare feet.

Fred Lundahl named his company after his son Buddy. Buddy 'L' Manufacturing Company made toys beginning in 1921.

The game "skittles" with the wooden top that spins and moves through compartments knocking down wooden pins does not have a connection to the English phrase Beer and Skittles. "Beer and Skittles" refers to the old game of ninepins, which makes the expression somewhat equivalent to "Beer and Bowling."

The geography game with plastic tokens in the shape of suitcases was called Travel and it was made in the 1960s by a company called Gardner Games.

Thanks for lisening.

Care to Super-Size Your Barrel of Monkeys?

In Ft. Myers, Florida there is a McDonald’s restaurant whose owner shares a passion of mine. No, not salted lard, silly. Board games! The place is decked out with tons of old games, beautifully framed in shadow boxes. Better yet, each framed game is a copy from the first year the game was introduced!

Giant versions of Connect Four and Barrel of Monkeys stand at the entrances and the counter is an altar to Monopoly and Scrabble (see picture above). Even the bathroom entrances have game murals surrounding them. But the Happy Meal moment came with the Dr. Kildare game. That's when we realized that in 1965, Richard Chamberlain looked like Ben Affleck did in 1995. Weird.

Check out the framed games!
The Game of Life
Sorry
Chutes & Ladders
Concentration
Trouble
Stratego

I’m Lovin’ It!

Licensing can make for strange bedfellows

Remember that Jeff Goldblum movie "The Fly" where he inadvertently mixed his own DNA with that of a bug? The result was less than perfect. In toy licensing, combining two unconnected properties sometimes works and other times… Well, I'll let you be the judge. Put it this way, I know a woman who loves peanut butter and horseradish sandwiches. To each his or her own, right?

WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU CROSS…

Everyone’s favorite spud and the evilest man in the Empire? >>> Darth Tater

A "teenage fashion model" and an assassin? >>> Elektra Barbie

A murder mystery and Disney?>>> Clue Haunted Mansion Game

A fortune telling device and a pack of thoughtful bruins? >>> Care Bears Magic 8 Ball

Monopoly and… Nah, too easy.

The caffeine shakes and a cup of the shakes? >>> Coca-Cola Yahtzee

The King and “King me?” >>> Elvis checkers

A super swingin’ secret agent and The Game of Quick Draw? >>> Austin Powers Pictionary

The Blue Bomber and Buzz Light Year? >>> Toy Story Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot Game

And everyone's favorite, Teddy Bears and that sure hit favorite, Death? >>> Teddy Scares

What's your peanut butter and horseradish sandwich?

Toy Fair Continued...

Here’s what I saw at Toy Fair. Our last Playmakers Poll revealed that Lego is king when it comes to construction toys, but plenty of companies are trying to attract kids with “Magnetic building sets.” These toys must be selling because there are lawsuits, and patents pending, and “confusion in the marketplace.” We have Magnetix, and Supermag and Geomag, just to name a few.

PlayAlong, deciding to strike while the iron is still hot, are reintroducing the Care Bears on the heels of their successful relaunch of the Cabbage Patch Kids. Long live the ‘80s!

Sababa continues to expand on classic toy brands with edgy editions of the Uno card game featuring South Park and Family Guy characters, as well as Etch-A Sketch drawing toys based on Batman and The Simpsons. Homer, Bart and the gang are the Energizer Bunnies of the licensing world. Even Milton Bradley has gone to Springfield (TV land not Massachusetts) by introducing an Operation game with Homer filling in for Cavity Sam.

Speaking of licensing, no Toy Fair would be complete without the hot movie tie-ins and the buzz this year was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Robots and The Fantastic Four.

Anniversaries were being celebrated this year. In 2005, Rubik’s Cube turns 25, Sea Monkeys turn 45 and Slinky turns 60! To celebrate, Poof-Slinky is playing the Slinky Jingle on radio stations all across the country. Do you remember the longest running jingle in TV history?

Marvin Glass is dancing somewhere because Fundex is relaunching the classic Glass-designed Gnip-Gnop. Originally produced in 1971 by Parker Brothers, this classic piece of plastic is loud and fun. BTW, the name Gnip-Gnop is Ping Pong, spelled backwards.

More on what Mattel is doing with TriBond and Blurt later this year...

Toy Fair Twisted

Just got back from Toy Fair. It was frantic as always, but at least this year I had the luxury of actually walking it instead of being chained to a booth. Being an exhibitor does have its perks though. I went to Javits early the first day to drop off some books to Mary Couzin at Discover Games, only to find out that I could not get in at 8:00am without an exhibitor badge. So there I stood with and hour to kill. Well at least a large scary clown came up to me blowing a whistle. Did I mention it was 8:00am? Did I mention he had a very loud band with him? Did I mention I don’t find clowns funny… at all? Remember that old game show where contestants tried to keep a straight face for cash while comedians tried to make them laugh? Put me up there with any clown in the world and I would be money.

ENOUGH! On with the show. Being locked out of the show for a bit allowed me to see what I could see outside of the exhibition hall and I found the National Toy Hall of Fame exhibit. Many cool toys where on display, including some professional Etch-A-Sketch art. Mind you that once inside with the exhibits, it was difficult to take pictures at the booths, as this practice is frowned upon. Is there anything more annoying than people taking pictures constantly? One of the big buzz products was the relaunched (rebirthed?) Cabbage Patch Kids and I did snap a few pics at the Lionel booth.

Speaking of trains, a few of us ventured to Ellen’s Stardust Diner on Broadway for breakfast one morning. It’s decked out in nostalgia and had an electric toy train which circled high above the singing waiters and waitresses.

Celebrities? Toy Fair had ‘em. My favorite was Jerry Maren, one of the original Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz. I got an autographed picture of him ($20) for my Oz-addicted sister. Now I ask you, where else but Toy Fair could you run into a founding member of The Lollipop Guild? Read more about him here.

I will post more about what new products I saw in a few days. I just had to get the clowns and munchkins off my mind (and out of my camera).

The Lost Voice...

I am not Wil Wheaton but like him, I am just a geek. I love toys (really?) and comic books and when you combine these two passions it can get really (no, really) geeky.

In 1971 my big brother left for college and handed me a stack of comics. Most of them were The Invincible Iron Man from Marvel. I was 7 years old at the time and a budding artist. Soon my room was littered with sketches of Iron Man. I watched the reruns of the Iron Man TV cartoon series after school and was a faithful reader of the comic books. I chickened out and stopped following the exploits of the Armored Avenger in high school when it was no longer “cool” to read comics and watch cartoons.

Five or six years later, I found myself in the back of a drug store in Hamilton, New York, spinning a comic rack in search of what ol’ Shell Head was up to. I’ve been hooked ever since. Much like The Playmakers, my obsession with Iron Man is merely an attempt to recapture my youth. It may be feeble, but it sure is fun.

So it is with a sad heart that I extend condolences to the family of veteran actor John Vernon, who died on February 1st. He was known best for his wonderfully smarmy portrayal of Dean Wormer in 1978’s Animal House, but I will always think of him as the baritone voice behind the man behind the mask of Iron Man. Vernon voiced the character of Tony Stark and Iron Man in the aforementioned TV cartoon series. The animation is so bad, it’s awesome (kids are so spoiled today). But it’s the sound effects, music and especially the voiceover talent that makes these videos a must-have. Download the wav. files below to hear John Vernon bring The Invincible Iron Man to life in the classic "The Hands of the Mandarin"

The walls! They're closing in!

A long distance laser beam!

Sweet dreams little friends!

Buy John Vernon as Iron Man at Amazon in "The Invincible Iron Man - The Death of Tony Stark & The Crimson Dynamo"

Johnny Carson 1925-2005

It is well documented that Johnny Carson launched the careers of many comedians including Joan Rivers, Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld. But did you know he launched "the game that ties you up in knots?" The picture above was given to me by Reyn Guyer, the co-inventor of Twister. I tried in vain to get the rights to reproduce this shot in my book, but I am pleased post it here as a tribute to the man that made so many laugh for so long. (Copyright holder wherever you are, forgive me). Here's the whole story as told in The Playmakers.

Twister hit the scene as a totally original game. Consumers didn’t “get it” when it first appeared on store shelves and some retailers refused to even stock it. Sales were so slow for the four-month period after Toy Fair that Milton Bradley decided to cut the rope on the game that tied you up in knots.

"Late in April, I got a call from Mel (Mel Taft, former Senior VP of R&D at Milton Bradley)," Reyn Guyer told me. "He said, ‘Bad news Reyn. We’re not going forward with it. It’s too risqué and Sears won’t touch it. We’re pulling the advertising.’ Well, Sears was such a key retailer back then that their decision could make or break a game. Twister was dead."

Anxiously, I asked him, "But then what about Johnny Carson? How did that happen?"

"Well, that’s the thing," Guyer continued. "Milton Bradley had hired a PR firm to pitch Twister and when they decided to discontinue it, they called their ad agency and pulled the TV spots and they called me to tell me it was finished. But for some reason, no one called the PR firm. All of a sudden, they booked it on The Tonight Show, and you know the rest."

The rest is Twister history. On May 3, 1966, Johnny Carson invited his guest, the glamorous and shapely Eva Gabor, to try out this new game with him. Ms. Gabor proved to be a good sport, which proved to be very good luck for Twister. The hilarious sight of a slightly embarrassed Johnny Carson and the refined Eva Gabor on all fours sent Johnny’s studio audience into hysterics.

Mel Taft was seated in the front row that momentous night. "I’ll never forget it," he said. "Ruth Millard from the public relations firm that had booked it was sitting next to me." Taft told me how nervous he was that Johnny would ridicule the game and that the result would be the nail in Twister’s coffin. "You never knew what Johnny was going to do. No one did. We were unsure until they began playing and we heard that roar of laughter from the audience." Soon after the show, it was apparent that the home audience had the same reaction....Over three million sets were sold in 1966.

Thank you Johnny.

When it came time to photograph the Raggedy Ann chapter in The Playmakers my daughter could not have been happier. At 8 years old, she tells me she is getting "too old" for Barbie. She's a true-blue American Girls fan, but has to save her allowance for months to afford those dolls. While she s-l-o-w-l-y tucks those coins and dollar bills into her piggy bank, her trusty Raggedy Ann is never far away. Here's a great article on everyone's favorite red head.

Birth Certificate No. 343POTTYMOUTH

Call them funny looking or even ugly, but don’t call them “dolls.” Now there are other naughty words concerning the nurses at the Cabbage Patch, as reported by Triggernews. “Play Along, a division of JAKKS Pacific, Inc., announced today it has taken immediate steps to address an issue concerning the computer generated registration number on the adoption certificates of its popular Cabbage Patch Kids. The Company said that the computer program used to generate the registration numbers inadvertently included six letters that were combined at random by the program to form inappropriate words which appeared in some of the registration numbers.”

The problem is sure to be fixed quickly, but the incident demonstrates just how high-tech these seemingly plain dolls really were when they were first invented. From The Playmakers :

Cabbage Patch Kids will be remembered for taking the toy industry’s focus off the computer craze of the early ’80s and returning it, temporarily, to the traditional doll business. However, the Cabbage Patch Kids were much more high-tech than most people think. In fact, Coleco’s expertise with sophisticated manufacturing was precisely why the deal was ultimately struck….the appeal of The Little People [predecessors of the Cabbage Patch Kids] rested in their individuality (no two had the same look or name), realism (adoption papers, birth certificates, etc.) and unique appearance. These elements needed to be retained in order for a mass-market toy maker to duplicate Original Appalachian Artwork’s success. Coleco’s experience with computerization convinced everyone involved that the look of each kid (they were still never referred to as dolls) could be randomly altered by changing clothes, eye color, the number and location of dimples or freckles, hair style and hair color. Much easier were the computerized production of the birth certificates and the generation of distinct double names (like Della Sarah), which Original Appalachian Artwork had ingeniously established to allow for a greater combination of naming possibilities (while also fitting their rural southern roots).

Wham-O's Magic Window

Someone recently e-mailed me describing this novelty from their youth, not knowing what it was called or who made it. Well here it is, Wham-O’s Magic Window!

No toy company could make a toy sound cooler than the copywriters at Wham-O. Frisbee was a “New gyroscopic airfoil!” Hula-Hoop was fun because it could “rotate perpetually with body-english!” Super Ball was “The most fantastic ball ever created by science!”

Not to be outdone, the Magic Window had VOLCANIC ACTION and was made of "MILLIONS OF MICRODIUM CRYSTALS." The cool thing about this toy was that the two colors of "crystals" would not mix, but stayed separated somehow to create "magic action," "lacy flower patterns," and "foaming, swirling effects!"

This toy was produced by Wham-O in 1973.

Board Games Galore!

Don't mess with Texas. That's what I found out this morning when I was on the KCRS Morning Show with Robert Hallmark and Kurt Verlei in Odessa. First we talked games from The Playmakers including Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, and Mouse Trap, but then the callers started to dig deep into their memory banks. I was stumped on more than a few games (Gusher? who knew?) and like many interviews, we ran out of time before I could answer everyone's questions. As promised, here's the low down on a few of the gems we dusted off.

Pollyanna A variant of Parcheesi, "The Game of India" which was first produced in modern form by Selchow & Righter in the 1860s. After Selchow’s success with Parcheesi, other game manufacturers made similar competing games including Ludo in England and Pollyanna by Parker Brothers in the States. Interestingly, Parker Brothers would tweak the idea a bit further and introduce Sorry in 1934 with great success.

Jamboree Another Selchow & Richter game that was first produced around 1937. You would travel to cities all over the world in this “The Sky’s the Limit!” game. Not to be confused with…

Jubilee a tile game with numbers (like Dominoes) produced by Cadaco-Ellis in 1954

Pick Up Sticks A common game based on an earlier version called Jack Straws which was available in the 1900s by Milton Bradley. Early sets could contain “Straws” or “Sticks” made from ivory or bone and are very desirable to collectors. McLoughlin Brothers (an early American game manufacturer) made a game of Jack Straws around 1890 with pieces made of different shapes – not just straight sticks. The object in all versions was to remove certain pieces without disturbing any others.

Pente This game was invented by Gary Gabrel around 1974. The first commercial game he produced came out in 1977. He sold it on his own until 1983 when Parker Brothers bought it from him. It is a variant of the Japanese game of Go where the object is to get five stones in-a-row or to make five captures.

Gusher was produced by Carrom in 1946. It was a “strike oil” game and was subtitled “Win a Million!” In 1974 Milton Bradley seemed to update the game as King Oil.

Blockade was an early war game (1941) and was subtitled “A Game for Armchair Admirals” It had metal ships for tokens.

Green Ghost was a glow-in-the-dark game introduced by Transogram in 1965. You reached into dark “pits” containing rubber bands (snakes), plastic bones, feathers, and keys in the search for little green ghosts.

Winnie still Hot After 78 years

One of the best preschool lines this year is Fisher-Price's Winnie the Pooh. As told in The Playmakers, we were introduced to Pooh and his friends in 1926 when the book Winnie-the-Pooh was written by author A. A. Milne.

The most popular teddy bear of all time, Pooh began his life with the name Edward Bear, named by Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne. The story is told that Christopher Robin became enamored with a black bear cub at the London Zoo named Winnie. The bear had belonged to a British soldier who had rescued her, named her after his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, and later donated her to the zoo. Christopher Robin renamed Edward Bear “Winnie.” The name Pooh came later, courtesy of Christopher’s famous father. The book Winnie-the-Pooh, first published in 1926, secured the popularity of the stuffed toy for generations.

Feeling nostalgic? Head over to Pooh Corner.

Ultimate Toy Awards Tonight on PAX

There's Oscar, Emmy, Tony and now Uta! If you missed the The Ultimate Toy Awards last night, the first-of-its-kind show will air again tonight from 7-8pm on PAX.

Celebrating play, family entertainment and the toy industry, the Ultimate Toy Award winners were chosen by consumers and the American toy press. The star-studded event is a collaboration among Toy Wishes magazine, Dick Clark Productions, Inc. and DIC Entertainment and is hosted Keith Carradine. Celebrity appearances include Hilary Duff, Paula Abdul, Debbie Allen, and Kathy Ireland. More information is available a Business Wire.

The National Ultimate Frisbee Championships

The Sarasota Polo Club was home to the National Ultimate Frisbee Championships this weekend (October 28-31, 2004). This year is the 25th Anniversary of the sport which was created by some students at a Maplewood, New Jersey high school in 1979. One of the students was Joel Silver who went on to become a mega-producer in Hollywood as the head of Silver Pictures and the producer of the Lethal Weapon and Matrix movies. Called Frisbee Football at first, the game evolved into the sport known as Ultimate. Today it is played in over 42 countries, with an estimated 100,000 people playing it worldwide. If the attendance this weekend was any indication, I would say those numbers are low.

Teams from all over the country came to compete in a three-day elimination tournament in the hunt for The Ultimate Cup. It's an incredibly fast game, with the players constantly running. There are no player substitutions during play, only after a score or an injury timeout. According to the rules there's no break when a change of possession occurs (i.e. no time out, no recovery time) and all players must make a seamless transition from offense to defense or vice versa.

I learned alot about the sport from Dan Roddick, an Ultimate legend who worked for Wham-O as the head of Frisbee promotion from 1975 to 1999. He said that the culture of Ultimate is fun, rowdy and a bit irreverent. After hangng out for most of the afternoon, this was obvious in the chants and cheers that would irrupt from the crowds and teams seemingly every few minutes. Apparently it takes amazing eye-hand coordination to even properly watch the sport. Tents were set up to sell beverages, food and more beverages, but also books, DVDs, and videos on Ultimate. I asked and sure enough, this event was being shot from all angles for a future DVD/video. T-shirts were also big sellers with one of my favorites being a line featuring an angry little monkey known as Furious George. But the T-Shirt of the day had to go to Dan Roddick who was sporting one from a Bridgeport, Connecticut Frisbee Festival and featuring a nice nod to the Frisbie Pie Pan that started it all.

An archived entry from this blog tells more about the history of Frisbee and you can check out the history of Ultimate here.

Poof-Slinky Brings Back Mr. Machine

He's loud, he's big and he's back. Poof-Slinky is reintroducing this 1960 classic designed by Marvin Glass & Associate's Leo Kripak (who not surprisingly was once a watchmaker) and Burt Meyer. From the Marvin Glass chapter of The Playmakers:

Marvin's Mr. Machine, a seventeen-inch-tall walking “robot” introduced by Ideal Toys in 1960, dramatically showed the possibilities of plastic. As demonstrated by Mr. Machine’s release, plastics offered the prospect of updating old toys previously made from metal, wood or paper. Mr. Machine, a revision of the old tin robots of the 1950s, hit it big, earning Glass enough in royalties to turn Marvin Glass & Associates into a toy design dynasty. Released in 1960, Mr. Machine spawned a board game and even became a part of Ideal Toys’ corporate identity as the marching mascot who ended their commercials with, “It’s a wonderful toy. It’s Ideal!”

This retro toy will come with a DVD featuring the original Mr. Machine TV commerical, a US patent certificate, a collector's manual detailing the history of the toy, a numbered certificate of authenticity and, of course, Mr. Machine's wrench!

I just sold the Mr. Machine featured in the book and pictured above to The National Toy Hall of Fame at Strong Museum so if you're ever in Rochester, New York, be sure to check him out.

Operation Gets An Upgrade

A few nights ago on Scrubs, cast members played Operation to celebrate the game’s 39th birthday and were challenged by Sam's new ailment, Brain Freeze.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans voted to pick a new ailment for Cavity Sam, the eternally patient patient from the Milton Bradley game. Brain Freeze, which is represented as an ice cream cone in Cavity Sam's head, beat out Growling Stomach and Tennis Elbow and has been added to the game.

According to Erick Arneson at About, in 2003, votes were cast both online and by phone for one of three possible new ailments. The final tally was Brain Freeze, 54%; Growling Stomach, 27%; and Tennis Elbow, 19%.

A national Operation Scrubs sweepstakes is underway at NBC’s Scrubs website where fans can enter to win a three-day, two-night trip for four to Los Angeles to visit the set of Scrubs. The prize includes a one-day pass to Universal Studios.

Happy B-Day D & D

For Dungeons & Dragon’s 30th Anniversary this year, roll-players from across the globe will be participating in "the biggest celebration of the greatest role playing game ever -- the Worldwide D&D Game Day!" The event will take place October 16th. For more details draw your swords and go here.

In 1974, Gary Gygax dropped out of high school and borrowed $2,100 to print 1,000 books detailing the rules to a new game he had developed with his friend Dave Arneson. They called it Dungeons & Dragons. Reportedly inspired by his father’s fantastic bedtime stores of enchanted rings and cloaks of magic, Gygax co-developed what is considered to be the first role-playing game. Its popularity led to a Saturday morning cartoon in the mid 80s and a movie in 2000 starring Jeremy Irons.

Who? Clue? Who?

This fall, Home & Garden Television will air a sequel to their successful special from last year entitled Toys We Grew Up With. The producers of the show, Thea Flaum Productions, flew me up to Chicago to talk on camera about Wham-O, Uno, Rubik’s Cube a few other classics. Dan Lombardi and his crew were great fun and we agreed to keep in touch after the interview. As Dan builds his show, he is running into many of the same difficulties I had in building my book when it comes to acknowleding these inventors. Many are so unknown that finding pictures of them is akin finding photographical evidence of Big Foot.

For the Uno chapter of my book, I was able to track down a picture of Uno’s co-inventor, Merle Robbins through his family, who graciously allowed me to share the photo with Thea Flaum for their TV show. However images of many other inventors proved impossible to find. Dan called me looking for a picture of Eleanor Abbott, the inventor of Candy Land and Anthony Pratt, the inventor of Clue. Neither of us ever found what we were looking for. It wasn’t as if we were on the hunt for a hair follicle or toenail clipping. This wasn't DNA evidence, this was just a picture! Dan and I both tried Parker Brothers/Hasbro (the US manufacturer of the game) and Waddington’s Games in England with no luck. We weren't alone...

According to a New York Times article by Robert McG. Thomas, Jr., Waddington’s executives found themselves tangled in their own Clue mystery in 1996. Planning to celebrate the sale of their 150 millionth Clue game worldwide, they could not locate Anthony Pratt. They set up a hotline and called upon the English populous to help solve the mystery of the missing inventor. Finally, the case was cracked when Waddington’s received a call from a cemetery superintendent who reported that Anthony Pratt had been buried there in 1994. His headstone read “Inventor of Cluedo.” -- The Playmakers.

The sheer anonymity of some of the inventors in The Playmakers is remarkable when you consider the impact their creations have had generations of families. Over 150 million games sold and a picture of the inventor is impossible to come by?!

Well, if we can not picture Anthony Pratt, we can certainly picture the suspects he made famous. And if we cannot see him, we can at least see to it that his legacy carries on. Thank you Anthony Pratt, wherever you are.

Click here for the current Playmakers Opinion Poll (Mrs. White is boring so we have "eliminated" her).

Radio Flyer Americana

On my recent book tour I relished the respites in rural communities along the way. I have made it a habit to mail my daughters postcards from the different states in which I travel, but I found my very own postcard in Indiana when I saw this Radio Flyer wagon on a porch. The sun was coming up and I was making good time, so I just took a few moments and daydreamed...

I could almost hear the screen door slam, smell the apple pie and feel the sway of the porch swing. I could almost smell the flowers, and hear the laughter of the kids who rode in this wagon. Almost...

Then I thought about who might live in such a quaint home. I thought of how long I'd been standing there gawking. I thought that perhaps an elderly woman was inside at that very moment, dialing the police to complain about a tall, strange man taking pictures of her house.

I thought I'd better get back on the highway.