Second round of submissions for Opportunity Clubhouse newsletter

 Meanwhile, I have also been working on some submissions for a next newsletter, which I will include here shortly. Depending on when you publish that newsletter you may want to slightly edit the introduction. Here goes:

Wintertime & Christmas Holidays can be a fun time to examine (and play with) some of the Toys in the Toy Hall of Fame. Some of the original inductees (1998-99) are:

The Box (For example: Children building a fort with empty cereal boxes.)

Etch a Sketch

Glass made Marbles

Erector Set

Hula Hoop

Lincoln Logs &

Frisbees

Playing with Toys is an important part of aging. Younger children use toys to discover their identity, help with cognition, learn cause and effect, explore relationships, become stronger physically and practice skills needed in adulthood. 

Author and Poet William Blake observed: 

The child's toys and the old man's reasons are the fruits of two seasons.

Frisbees were invented by Walter Frederick Morrison after he and his future wife Lucille had fun tossing a popcorn can lid after their Thanksgiving Dinner in  1937. 

Frisbee has developed into numerous games including the popular Frisbee Disc Golf. A free 18 'hole' course is available in the rear section of the Centre Hall Prairie Park one mile up Brush Valley Road. Bring your own frisbee. 

The Aerobie

The Aerobie - invented by Stanford engineering lecturer Alan Adler in 1984 - is an especially aerodynamic next generation of the Frisbee. For years the Aerobie held the record as the farthest object thrown by Mankind. Frisbee champ Scott Zimmerman even threw an Aerobie across Niagara Falls!

Lincoln Logs

-were named after Abe Lincoln who was born in a log cabin. John Wright, a son of well-known architect Frank Lloyd Wright developed this popular toy. 

Note: History teacher and author Dr. James W. Loewen observed one of his students remark that "Abe Lincoln was born in a Log Cabin that he built with his own bare hands!" 

Field of impossible Aerobie Dreams

I once lofted an Aerobie 440 feet in the field by George Washington’s Mount Vernon Grist Mill. My friend Mike threw one about 460 feet. About twenty years ago, we were playing around with the aerobie in a baseball diamond near Woodbridge, Virginia on a Sunday morning. It was sort of a sandlot field and some younger kids were playing soccer in the outfield. Mike threw me the aerobie from home plate to second base to where I was going to pretend to catch an invisible runner stealing second base. However, a great wind caught the aerobie and it floated into far leftfield. Suddenly it came down and landed around the neck of the only black kid playing soccer. The game stopped and everybody grew silent. To this day, we still talk about it, the various symbolisms it meant, etc. The good thing though was that after a few seconds of shock, everybody had a good laugh and knew all of the soccer runners were safe. They knew that the two scruffy galoots standing there in the limey infield could not have made that shot on purpose, even if they tried a thousand times, and with a smile, the kid tossed his temporary necklace back to us.