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Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Folk toys of an earlier time can still amaze
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Almost everyone has had a special toy as a child and tucked away in a corner of the memory is a special feeling for that toy. For a certain time in one's life, a toy was the key to a private world of innocent play, of mystery or adventure and of pleasure. As adults we can step back into our childhood by once again holding, feeling and seeing a favorite toy.A group of toys that has been part of our heritage since the days of early settlement in Canada, is the folk toy. Built from wood, scraps of cloth, corn cobs, cornhusks or whatever else was at hand, these toys were handmade by people for their own use. Many of the designs for folk toys were passed down from one generation to the next. Puzzles, dolls, action toys, tops etc. were not only good fun but, more times than not, promoted thoughtfulness in the children. Some good examples of these types of folk toys were the Whimmydiddle, Flipper Dinger, Buzz Saw, Jacobs Ladder and Bull Roarer.
The Whimmydiddle, at first, seems to be utterly magical! When another stick is rubbed across its notches, the little propeller at the end is caused to turn. When it is rubbed differently , the rotor turns in the opposite direction. These left and right movements have created a legend that the Whimmydiddle is a lie detector but actually the operator controls the "true" and "false" answers by employing a few simple rules of physics.
The Flipper Dinger looks like a miniature version of the game of basketball but is several times older than basketball which was not invented until the 1890s. A Flipper Dinger is a blowpipe with an air outlet on the top side. A hoop or ring of wire is fastened to the blowpipe and stands several inches above it. A small pith ball has a very small wire with a hook on it pushed through its center. When one blows on the blow pipe, the little ball, resting on the air tube rises towards the hoop. It is a principle of physics that the ball will try to remain on the air stream instead of falling off. It keeps floating high while the player attempts to hook the ball onto the hoop.
The Buzz Saw or Moon Winder is a toy with which almost all of us have had some experience. A large button or other disk is threaded with a long double string through the button holes. The disk is started by winding up the string and flipping it. Then, by intermittent pulls on the ends of the string, the oscillating motion of the button increases its speed. At high speed, the disk sings like a circular blade saw!
Jacobs Ladder is a traditional folk toy that has immediate appeal because it is both spectacular and mystifying. A series of wooden blocks, usually five to eight, are linked together by glued cloth tapes in such a way that they hinge against each other and create an illusion of tumbling down. The end most block is grasped by its edges and tipped to touch the second block again. This may be repeated indefinitely, sending ripples down the ladder in a manner that appears to replicate perpetual motion!
The Bull Roarer is an ancient toy which possesses such aerodynamic properties that it never ceases to amaze even the most jaded modern child. It makes a reversing roaring noise, much like an angry, snorting bull! The noise is created by grasping the handle and swinging the flat wooden paddle at the end of the string around your head continuously on one direction. The paddle will wind up the string until it is tight in one direction, whereupon it will reverse and unwind, only to rewind in the opposite direction. Again and again it will reverse, making suprisingly loud noises as it accelerates and decelerates at each reversal. Needless to say that when this toy experienced one of its many rebirths, in Victorian times, mothers became increasingly anxious when they were used inside their knick-knack-filled homes!
"Folk toys" like "folk tales" or "folk songs" have similar characteristics and a similar history. They have all been appreciated by many people over long periods of time and have been handed down, with minor variations, from one generation to another. Fortunately, many of these folk toys are still readily available to-day and would, of course, make as treasured a gift for Christmas 2002 as they would have in Christmas 1802!
For more information on how you can purchase, locally, the folk toys mentioned in this article as well as many others, contact us at HYPERLINK mailto:jgilbert@ciaccess.com jgilbert@ciaccess.com or give us a call at 351-2058.
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
