What was your favourite toy as a kid? Did you enjoy creating castles from your Lego blocks, running around outside with a ball or simply whiling away hours amusing yourself with a spinning top? No matter what your preference used to be, chances are you still look back at these hours of simple play with fondness and a certain amount of longing.
Toys and play itself serve various purposes in the developmental phases of both human youngsters and animal offspring. It provides entertainment while at the same time improving cognitive ability and stimulating creativity. Play also aids in the fundamental development of essential physical and mental skills. Most young mammals will turn anything they find into a toy, including pinecones, rocks and food. It makes sense then that toys have a history as long and colourful as that of human civilization itself.
Toys and games have been recovered from various excavated sites of ancient civilizations and have been documented in some of our oldest preserved literature. An excavation of the Indus Valley yielded small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys – all dating back as far as 3000-1500 BC. The earliest toys were made from substances found in nature such as rocks, sticks and clay. Egyptian children played with dolls that boasted wigs and ambulatory limbs moulded from stone, pottery and wood. In ancient Greece and Rome dolls were shaped form wax or terracotta and yo-yo’s were popular. Greek children, especially females, were expected to sacrifice their childhood toys to the gods once they came of age. Of their wedding night young girls would offer their dolls at a temple at a rite of passage into the world of adults.
Technology evolved and, along with it, toys also changed. Ancient toys were often made by the parents and the family of the children who used them and sometimes by the children themselves. Today’s toys, however, are mass-produced and sold in stores.
Some contemporary toys were created by accidental innovation. Earl Warrick, for instance, was trying to come up with a replacement for synthetic rubber when he inadvertently invented Silly Putty during WWII. Later Peter Hodgson realised it had potential as a children’s toy and marketed it accordingly. Another type of play dough was originally meant to be wallpaper cleaner! The humble Slinky had its beginnings in a military lab. In 1943 Richard James was working with torsion springs when one came loose and fell to the floor. He was very intrigued by the delightful way it flopped around on the floor and proceeded to spend two years fine-tuning the design before selling it of to a large toy company in the USA.
Toys play many different roles in our society, but when it comes right down to it they are meant to facilitate having FUN. Next time you see a child thoroughly absorbed in play take a moment to appreciate the simple joys in life. Who knows, maybe you’ll feel like joining in for a while.
