Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 19, 2012

I pity today’s kids — they have no idea how to have fun!

I love Danae’s last statement. Maybe it was, Danae,maybe it was.

I’m hoping that this story arc continues with Flo giving the girls her old yo-yo. Joe then demonstrates some tricks but, with thirty years of rust on his yo-yo wrist, gets a concussion when he raps himself on the head while trying to go around the world.

Maybe she’ll figure it out, It took quite a while before I learned how to make a yo-yo do more than yo.

WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW THESE KIDS HOW TO WORK THE BLOODY THING!?!?

She needs a stick if she is going to roll that hoop properly. That is the earlier usage.

It needs the “shoop, shoop” sound.

It’s like riding a bike – you don’t forget! I got mine out again and use it. Great exercise!

I use it as my template.

It just needs Bluetooth.

Grandma also had a pogo stick

Our local PBS station plays reruns from “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The really early shows (“riiily greeeat shows”) have old performers, probably from the last of the vaudville acts, doing plate spinning and tricks with hoops. .And other things such as musical glasses and musical saws. And remember the Harmonicats?.I could go on, but today’s kids watching that old stuff must be flabbergasted — as I was, when as a kid the old folks put on “minstrel shows” with black-face and cakewalks..I get too sentimental around the holidays, and this is getting me started …

I remember Creepy Crawlers, nothing sez fun like a hot plate and melting plastic

I actually hated the hula hoop when I was a kid. I could never get the stupid thing to work. Played lots of ping pong back in the day, though, and guess what? So do my kids.

Hey,I would be willing to bet Victoria knows how to use it! Enter stage left…

I’m waiting for Danae’s dad to come along…

is disappointment their legacy or something they will grow into?

Probably just needs a software update.

Toy trains! Stilts! A bygone world awaits.

Would you rather have a paddleball? I was the school hero when I hit 100 before anyone else did. Sigh.

My kids had Creepy Crawlers. The fumes were so bad we kept the oven or whatever in the garage. Guess they were discontinued because the fumes were determined to be toxic.

Creepy Crawlers and the related toy, Vac-U-Form, probably were dropped because of the exposed heating element.

This is another reason why I’m going to initiate “No Electricity Saturdays” in my house this summer!

I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950’s. I did the math. There must have been over 500 kids on our street. You had to learn how to get along with others – you didn’t have a choice.

Thanks for mentioning Creepy Crawlers, I’ve been trying to think of their name all morning…At least you could play with them, what do you do with Vac-U-Form shapes?

No imagination. They only get to view the products of other people’s imaginations.

I use them for mounting the outer ring of lights on UFOs.

When I was a kid in the ‘60s & ’70s, I daydreamed about the toys (consoles, etc) that kids have today. It never occurred to me that you could actually make them a reality. Just because kids play differently today doesn’t mean they don’t have fun or create. It’s just different. The only constant in the world is change.

And should we forget the Social Activists, Meddlers, and Protesters that sanitized, safety-ized, and Lawyered-upevery activity we ever had going for us, so that whatever we do or use today needs a sticker, certification or warning label attached thereto plus a fine for faiure to comply ?

I would like to respond to your last sentence.Please consider the old definition of fear meaning “being in awe”. And the fact that the nightime sky was considered “God”. Therefore standing in awe of the universe and recognizing yourself in relation to it is the beginning of wisdom. The next step is realizing your capability to comprehend that recognition, then coming to terms that you (all of us) are actually somwhere in between the nothingness in comparison to the Universe and the greatness of our capabilities. Most people miss that boat, especially most present well-known “religious” leaders.

I never got what I wanted for Christmas, so who is it that buys these electronic thingies for their children and grandchildren?

I like to translate “fear” as “awesome respect”. Although there are places in that book where the word translated as fear means fear.

isn’t danae’s grandparents baby boomers? or, is this a previous timeline, and her grandparents were depression babies and fighting the war? if they were baby boomers, then it was the golden age of toys with some exceptions(like lead paint). but, then again, the baby boomers were all protesting the war, fighting in the war, getting high, being promiscuous, dodging the draft, or wasting their youth on stupid stuff.

In MY grandma’s days they would have chased the hoop with a stick ;-D

I trained as a belly dancer for 2 years. I still couldn’t get a hula hoop to stay up.

Uniquename, your last sentence is the great secret of life.."Within, without the constant theme is change..But different doesn’t mean it’s not the same. I saw my old friend Linda just today. She looked the same to me as yesterday. Her wrinkles gave he character, she still had lots to say. We talked about the dues we’d had to pay. She’s still the same still growin’ every day…

The constant things unflexible are few. And most of them are things that you shouldn’t do. Even this old stupid world knows how to start new. How many people sparkle like the dew? Light gravity stay the same not you….Parts of one of my songs…

Darwinskeeper, funny, dude….