Now, I know that many of you have played with one of these at some point in time! Probably had a lot of fun with it, too!
NO smarty-pants! I'm talking about the Frisbee, not the girl! I do have to admit that she might have made a good tossing partner, but I wanted to discuss the toy and not your choice of playing partners!
Back in the day of my childhood, we used to play with the lid off a coffee can. That was in the day when the coffee can lids were removed with the aid of a twisting "key", much like the "key" used on sardine cans! These lids had some pretty sharp edges on 'em, so the tossing was usually done without a partner to do the catching!
It wasn't until the emergence of the plastic disc that the catching could be done without some cut fingers! Here is a brief history from About.com concerning the wonderful Frisbee!
The Frisbee story starts in college. Late 19th-century students at Yale and other New England universities played catch with pie plates (some say it was cookie tin lids) made by the nearby Frisbie Baking Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. They yelled "Frisbie!" to warn passersby away from the spinning discs.
In 1948, Walter Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni created a plastic version to sell at county fairs. The airfoil at the outer edge, called the Morrison slope, gives the toy its lift in flight. Hoping to cash in on the fascination with UFOs after the 1947 sightings in Roswell, New Mexico, Morrison called his creation the "Flying Saucer," then the "Pluto Platter."
Wham-O founders Arthur "Spud" Melin and Richard Knerr (creators of the Hula Hoop) bought rights to the toy in 1955, and renamed it "Frisbee" in 1958. Sales soared, reaching 100 million before Mattel bought out Wham-O.
Early in the 1960s, people treated the flying disc as a counterculture sport. Wham-O's first "professional" Frisbee followed in 1964.
Don't you just love finding out a little about some of the things you used to play with? Older versions, newer versions...it really doesn't matter. What matters is that they were fun, they sometimes were educational, and they offered a way to get plenty of exercise while enjoying it at the same time!
How cool is that? Getting healthy by playing outside! WAIT...! Didn't our folks say something like that to us many times when we were younger? I think they did!
Now, my friends, let's get some fresh coffee and sit outside for a bit! Maybe we can toss the Frisbee around for a bit...just don't expect me to chase it very fast, OK?
