My Slant on the Slinky

At a Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia in 1945, the Slinky toy made its American debut and by 1946 it was introduced to the American toy market. Developed by a naval engineer from Pennsylvania, the Slinky was basically a helical spring made of steel. In its heyday, Slinky was manufactured in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, a bustling borough seven miles south of Altoona.

The Slinky's main claim to fame as a toy was that it could go down a flight of stairs all by itself, with a little push from a kid at the top of the stairs. Other than this, the Slinky was probably the most fascinating and also the most boring toy ever produced in the 20th Century. It was eventually made of plastic, which made it cheaper, tackier and even more boring than before.

No matter how you felt about it, the Slinky toy from James Industries, Inc. was one of the most popular kid-and-gravity-powered toys in 20th-Century America, along with the baseball, football, Frisbee and the plain old rock. Now manufactured by Poof-Slinky, Inc. — a result of the 2003 merger of James Industries, Inc. and Poof Products, Inc. — the Slinky was one of the few baby-boomer toys that wasn't manufactured by Mattel, Marx or Ron Popeil (Popeil, Ronco).

The Corner Drugstore

Not all small-town drugstores in the 20th Century were on the corner and not all of them had soda fountains but my favorite one did. It was replaced before the new millennium made its debut by a chain restaurant that mostly sells ice cream. I’ll bet there were a lot of corner drug stores around the country between 1951 and 2000, when I did my running in the last century.

These were places where you could buy tobacco and newspapers and magazines and men’s and women’s toiletries and get your prescriptions filled. But they were also places to leisurely enjoy a cherry Coke from a soda fountain or an ice cream soda or even a hamburger. The “druggist” usually wore a white smock and the soda fountain waitresses often wore pink or blue uniforms. I liked it when these women popped their chewing gum and winked at me.

I’ll probably never get to see a drugstore as cool as the one in the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” but I’d give an eye tooth to set my butt down on one of those high stools and order a double chocolate malted or an egg cream or a lemon phosphate.

Anyone have a time machine I can use for a few hours?