Misc. History: View Masters

This has taken me awhile to do. As a kid I remember having a view master & sitting in my room looking at the reels. I still have my reels. I know they still make them but it just doesn't seem the same back when I was a kid. Recently looking at my reels, I wondered where & when did it all start. I found the info & decided to share with everyone who remembers having a view master and/or has bought them for their kids. Here is what I found.

The view master goes back to the late 1930's in Portland, Oregon. Two guys named William Gruber & Harold Graves were the first to bring the view masters. Graves was president of Sawyers Photographic Services. He saw Gruber's camera rig had potential. They partnered up & the view master was born in 1938.

The view master was first intended to be as educational tool mostly aimed at adults. As time passed, it became more of children's entertainment. The view master was used in the US military & had special sets of reels to help them identify artillery & aircraft during WWII. 

The Sawyer company had a rival, Tru-Vue company. The Sawyers bought the Tru-Vue company in 1951 & obtained the rights to have Disney characters on their reels.

In 1966, the General Aniline & film corporation purchased the view masters. They had a good run but the view masters were seen as a toy & slowly the market started to shrink.

In 1981 the company was sold to Arnold Thaler & was renamed as the view master international group. Then in 1989 it was sold to Tyco toys. In 1997 Mattel, Tyco & view master merged. The view master name continues on & is now produced under the name Fisher Price.

There have been many different kinds of view masers including characters like Mickey Mouse, Big Bird, Casper, Batman, Tweety & Power Rangers. Below is a slide show with the different types of view masters that have been produced over the years. I DO NOT OWN THE PHOTOS except for 2 of them, the all white talking view master with it's reels & the photo of a few different reel stories. The photo of the reels are from my personal (sm) collection from when I was a kid.  I got my info from the web site: 

I found a site in searching for info on view masters, where you can turn your photos into a view master reel. They have different packages & one includes a view master to view your reels if you don't have a view master. I think this is the coolest thing. The prices seem to be pretty reasonable too. Here is the web site if you are interested: http://www.cinti.net/~vmmasell/custom.html

Misc History: The Hula Hoop

When I was a kid, I used to love the hula hoop. I would be able to do it on my neck, arm, waist & I think around my foot. Now I probably couldn't do it but oh the fun. I know they still make them but they are not as popular along with other older toys & that's a shame. I was curious to how the hula hoop became to be. It's pretty simple really but here is what I found.


In 1957, wood rings were being made & sold in retail stores in Australia. This caught the attention of a toy company called Wham-o ( I remember that brand).


In 1958, Richard P. Knerr & Arthur K. Melin from the Wham-o company out out plastic colored hoops & it has been in our lives ever since. Some people can do some amazing things with the hula hoop. Now they have ones that light up creating amazing lights when done in the dark.


So that is how the hula hoop came into our lives. But what about the past? I mean the idea had to come from somewhere. Here is that history.


It is known that 1000 B.C., kids in Egypt would play with circular hoops from grape vines & stiff grass. A stick was also used to move it along the ground. 


In the 14th century, it was called 'hooping'. Apparently some people got hurt with dislocated backs & heart attacks from hooping. The word 'hula' came into place for the toy in the 1800's when British sailors went to the Hawaiian islands & saw that hula dancing was like hooping. 


When Knerr & Melin created them for their company, they would take them to playgrounds, show them what to do & gave the kids a free hula hoop. It caught on & they made millions. 


I find it interesting how things are created & that something some simple catches on & people make millions from it. Now why can't I do that? lol I got my info from this site:


http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/hulahoop.htm


A skimmed another site that pretty much said the same thing, just not in so much detail. I am working on doing the history of view masters. There is a lot of info & I am in the middle of other things but hope I can get to it soon. :) Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Misc. History: Rock Paper Scissors

Rock, paper, scissors, a game played by everyone young or old. So where did it come from? Well I found this on ask yahoo:

"According to Wikipedia, the game has its origins in China. It was popular among warlords (!) during the Han Dynasty. It's not exactly clear whether it was used to idly pass the time, to make cavalier decisions, or as something more akin to gambling.

Another source offers an extensive (and somewhat convoluted) history of a Japanese game called "jan ken pon." It's believed this game (basically "rock, paper, scissors") evolved from another Japanese game called "honken," which involved two players simultaneously extending zero to five fingers. With both hands hidden, each person would then guess the total number of fingers. Whoever guessed correctly won."

It isn't much but it is all I could find. I think it's interesting how things like this start out & evolve into something a lot different over the years. I wonder what things that are started today, will evolve into something different in the future & just how different.

Misc History: Origin Of Words & Sayings

I recently read a book called 'I didn't know that' by Karlen Evins. This woman gathered words & sayings throughout her life, did her best to find out the meaning/origin of them & put them in a book. She gathered her info before there was Google, no internet. The info inside the book is based on what she found in her searches. I didn't read all the words & sayings but I did find a lot of interesting history on the ones I did read. I thought I would share some of those. I will type word for word that is in the book.

1) Crocodile tears - Those insincere tears we've come to know as crocodile tears quite literal in origin. For you see, a crocodile does indeed cry over it's meal as it eats. But the crying has nothing to do with the croc's sense of the situation. Instead, as a crocodile eats, his food is pressed to the top of his mouth, causing pressure against the glands known as the lachrimals. These secrete a tearlike substance that flows from the eyes. From this biological activity of the reptile, we today draw our meaning for crocodile tears.

2) God bless you - Ever wonder why we would have "God bless you" after a sneeze? Well, in much the same way that it was believed man could part body & spirit & be beside himself, the ancients believed a good sneeze could literally blast your soul right out your body! To ensure that no bad spirits moved into the vacancy, "God bless you" was said to clear the way so soul & body could reunite.

3) Goose pimples - Also known as gooseflesh, goose pimples are those bumps you get when your skin takes a chill. For obvious reasons, goose pimples were named for their similarity to the skin of a plucked goose. Long ago, goose feathers were used for a myriad of things; thus, some birds were plucked up to five times a year. From these pluckings, farmers soon noticed the reaction of gooseflesh to the cold, as the birds' skin contracted to pull up what would have been feathers. This gooseflesh was soon associated with the same bumpy-skin effect that cold or certain emotions had on humans.

4) Knock on wood - So why would knocking on wood be a symbol for luck? It goes way back to pre-Christian times, when pagan religious beliefs held that good spirits resided in trees. To knock on a tree was to call upon those spirits to protect you as you journeyed through life (and especially through the forest!)

5) Paparazzi - Any freelance photographer who aggressively pursues a celebrity for the purpose of obtaining that perfect candid shot is said to be a part of the paparazzi, but what exactly is paparazzi? Well, the word is Italian in origin and, literally translated, means "buzzing insects." (Anyone having seen the hoopla surrounding the better known celebs of our time knows exactly where the word gets it's meaning!)


6) Raining cats & dogs - It was during the heaviest of rains back in 17th century England that the remains of dogs & cats were often seen floating through the streets. The reason had to do with poor drainage systems & even poorer health - control laws. As these animals often drowned when there came a flood, it was soon said that it had "rained cats & dogs" (though at the time, the saying pertained more to pole cats & dogs!).


7) Skeleton in the closet - Back in the dark ages it was long held by superstition that a doctor could not cut into the body of a dead person, for fear of disturbing it's ghost. As a result, cadavers became hot items on the black market for doctors longing to study human anatomy. When grave robbers began to supply the goods, many a good doctor became suspected of having a skeleton in his closet, which gives us today's meaning of "private of hidden secrets".


8) Wearing your heart on your sleeve - Wearing your heart on your sleeve was customary among knights at one time. In reality, the actual heart worn was a scarf or handkerchief given by a damsel to her knight, prior to his going off to fight. The scarf, worn by the knight as an armband, was a symbol to his fellow soldiers that his body might be in battle, but his heart was somewhere else.


9) X for a kiss - The original X used to designate a kiss dates back to medieval times, and believe it or not, it was a legal custom. In attempts to show good faith, the X (symbol for Saint Andrew) was placed after each signature on papers of importance. To further reinforce the pledge made in the documents, the signee was required to kiss the X as a guarantee of his or her obligation. Over time, the association with the legal profession has been long forgotten, but the X we still remember as the sign for a kiss.


10) Xmas - While some consider it disrespectful to substitute an X for the Christ part of Christmas, others know that the letter X was in fact the symbol used long ago for Christ. X represents the Greek letter chi, which is the initial letter of the Greek word for Christ. And according to 1st century history, the early Greek Christians used the letter X to stand for Christ, much as they used the fish with the X in the tail to represent Jesus.


11) Zip code - We refer to it every day, but how many of us know that the ZIP stands for "Zone Improvement Program"? Okay, so you may have known that, but do you know what the 5 digit code represents? Well, according to our reliable postal people, the first 3 digits indicate a district, usually a city, while the remaining 2 digits correspond with a local zone.


I may do my own research on some words because I am always curious about things like this. :)