Did you follow the fads?
I used to like fads.
Not anymore.
Fads can be fun for young folks.
But not necessarily for we septuagenarians.
For us, nothing really lasts that long 鈥� by comparison.
Allow me to take you to my youth.
Hula-Hoops
I had one. A nice big, red one.
I was one of the millions of kids, nationwide who Hula-Hooped 鈥渂ack in the day.鈥�
I wrote a 缅北禁地 column in June 2009 that, in part, said, 鈥淚n 1958, 100 million of them were sold. By the end of that year, the Hula-Hoop was, according to some reports, dead.鈥�
Dead?
Even though we鈥檇 cajoled our parents into falling for the latest craze, that craze died within months.
I remember there were a number of crazes in the 鈥�50s and 鈥�60s.
First, let鈥檚 start with marbles.
They weren鈥檛 technically considered to be a fad.
They鈥檇 been around for a long time before I got mine.
We (my older brother, Marlin, and I) stored ours in a big jar.
My contribution was rather small compared to Marlin鈥檚.
Marbles were round, hard, and smooth 鈥� made of glass or clay and were either clear or opaque.
I wonder how the game of marbles would fare in 2022.
First, you鈥檇 have to get down on a flat surface; draw a circle with a rock, or some other jagged utensil, and then use your thumb as the source of 鈥渕arble propulsion.鈥�
That probably wouldn鈥檛 be too far-fetched for today鈥檚 potential marble enthusiasts.
But hold your horses!
The game of marbles didn鈥檛 have a screen or buttons, or email, Instagram, or TikTok.
A flat surface, some marbles, and a thumb. That鈥檚 all you needed.
And out of that game, came something that鈥檚 still a bit mysterious to me.
Fried Marbles
You鈥檇 take a hot pan; perhaps add a little oil; get a bowl with cold water (maybe even add some ice cubes); and, of course 鈥� a handful of prime, Grade A, my brother, Marlin鈥檚, marbles.
I don鈥檛 know the origins of that particular activity.
But the goal was to make something that sort of resembled jewelry.
(To a 10-year-old, jewelry could probably be anything anybody tells them is jewelry, I suspect.)
So, here we go with my personal recipe for Fried Marbles.
Heat the pan; add a little oil; allow the pan to get nice and hot; add marbles; let them get really, really hot. (It doesn鈥檛 help if they only get one really hot. They must get really, REALLY hot); place the really, really hot marbles into the bowl of really, really, cold water; then step back and watch those little babies crack from the inside 鈥� without breaking apart.
Voila!
You have some Fried Marbles.
You鈥檇 hope your mother and father weren鈥檛 aware of your Fried Marble adventure. Waiting until the Andy Griffith Show was on TV in the living room, may have provided the requisite cover.
There were also fads that you could wear back in those days.
I made sure my shoes had cleats on them. Not the kind of cleats that are attached to baseball or football shoes. But flat, metal cleats.
They were pretty big back in the 1950s and 鈥�60s.
I鈥檇 think many parents didn鈥檛 object to having them installed on kids鈥� shoes because they helped alleviate heel and sole wear on them.
The bonus was being able to get those cleats to announce (click, clack) you before you came into the room. A plus for getting attention.
Madras plaid
I never had a madras plaid shirt. But I knew lots of kids who did have them.
I鈥檓 told that Brooks Brothers first brought them out.
And that there had been something wrong in the manufacture of them that caused them to 鈥渂leed鈥� when they were washed.
So, a skillful Madison Avenue advertising executive named David Ogilvy made use of the design flaw.
He coined the phrase 鈥済uaranteed to bleed鈥� as a marketing tool.
Bingo.
The famed (albeit short-lived) madras plaid shirt was born.
The rest is history.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.