Wondering About Toy Tops.
When I was growing up, I was given a toy top that would whistle loudly if you could get it spinning fast enough. It was made of metal and felt quite heavy for its small size. The way it was used was to wrap a cord around it tightly and then throw it as hard as you could, either overhand or underhand depending on how experienced you were, and just before it came to the end of the string, you jerked back on the string to stop its forward motion and add some extra spin. If it was thrown fast enough and if you jerked back at the last split second that some of the cord was still wrapped on it, it would whistle loudly and spin and spin and spin for a long time. My parents house had a few dents in the wall from the times I didn't quite get the string jerked back in time. This is the kind of top that I had:
Of course there are many, many varieties of tops. A lot of them were made of wood:
Of course for the younger kids and those who have not perfected the tops shown above, there was always this style of top:
If I remember correctly, that red handle on top was attached to a twisted rod that when the rod was pushed up and down it would cause the body of the top to spin. Some of these tops would also whistle or make some sort of other noise. I don't know about today's kids, but when I was young, tops could entertain me for hours and hours, especially the one shown at the top of this posting. Now, just because these tops spin, try not to get dizzy because I am Dizzy enough for all of us. Have a great day, you hear?
Also like the gyroscopes. The faster these things spin, the better the balance, so why do when we get dizzy and our heads are spinning, we fall down? Do we need more RPM?
ReplyDeleteNo, you need bigger feet. . .
Deletelol, i went thru the top phase too. got good at it,, yoyos too.
ReplyDeleteHey, we got to have toys when we were young. . . In fact, we need our toys when we get old, too.
DeleteI remember we had wooden tops with meal tips, if you got it 'right' you could chip the concrete at school.
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember those, also. I never used my top outside, but I bet it, too, could chip concrete.
DeleteOH Yeah! Top Wars.
ReplyDeleteOne person would set their top to spinning on the ground and then one or more others would attempt to hit it when they threw their top down. If there were a lot of players and you were last it greatly increased your chances of hitting another top.
Yep, that is one time when being last is a good thing.
DeleteTops were one of the things that nearly everyone had! Lots of fun in some of the older toys!
ReplyDeleteWhen we were kids, we had fun with simple things. The most complicated toys I had were a chemistry set, an erection set, and Tinker Toys. Loved those Tinker Toys.
Delete