Last week’s issue of this newspaper had so many Letters to Santa Claus that we had to save some for this week, Those letters contained requests for a number of toys I had never heard of but I don’t remember anyone asking for a new mobility aid I learned about by reading the December issue of the Superior High School newspaper. If I could roll a few decades off the calendar, I would like to have a pair of Heelys.
I recall watching Megan Genung effortlessly roller blading down main street as part of a Lady Vestey Festival Parade. I’d like to be able to do that between home and work but roller blades can’t be worn all the time and stopping on my journey at the post office would be difficult if I first had to remove the roller blades. That wouldn’t be a problem with Heeleys for it appears they can be worn all day as the wearer has the option of easily shifting between wheels and regular shoe soles.
If there are still carhops who have to wear roller skates while working at drive-in eating establishments, I suspect they would willingly trade their roller skates for Heelys.
In a Flashlight article, Gavin Ekstein reported on the unusual shoe known as the Heely. If I were younger, I’m sure I would have asked Santa to bring me a pair of the shoes. If the shoes work as well as I anticipate, I might have tried them on a commute from Blauvelt’s Hill to Superior.
Gavin’s story about Heelys follows:
There are many different kinds of shoes in the world, from sneakers to tennis shoes, to sports shoes with cleats. But have you ever heard of Heelys?
Heelys are high-top shoes with a little wheel similar to a skateboard wheel. They are said to be pretty easy to use. All you have to do is shift your weight a little bit on the back of the heel and the wheel pops out of the sole. With the wheel out, a wearer can skate on the wheels provided they keep their weight shifted correctly.
The inventor of the Heely is Roger Adams. He was born in 1954 and grew up in Tacoma, Wash. The skate culture of Tacoma were pretty intense. He worked at his family-owned roller rink.
He was sitting on a friend’s porch when he had an idea for a new way to have fun on wheels. He soon was testing and refining his idea. Once he had the design figured out, he began applying for patents.
After perfecting the shoe, he began looking for investors to help him bring the shoe to market. Patrick Hammer was the investor and the shoes hit the stores in May of 2000. Six years later his company was trading on the stock market. The company now has a market capitalization of $932.77 million.
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As we finish 2021 and await the arrival of 2022, I haven’t heard anyone worry about Y2K. You do remember those who feared our way of life would collapse with the arrival of the new century. Instead many of us like to look back at the passing year. Some don’t stop with one year but instead look at many past years. In a recent issue of the Hill City Times, Jim Logback, the 80 plus year old editor reprinted an article with the headline “To All The Kids Who Survived the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.” I could add a few things like wading in stagnat pools of water probably loaded with blue-green algae but perhaps I should use Logback’s list. It follows.
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and drank alcohol while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright-colored, lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seatbelts, no air bags, bald tires and, sometimes, no brakes.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar, and we weren’t overweight. Why?
Because we were always outside playing... that’s why! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were okay.
We would spend hours building our go carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play Stations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies, or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no internet, and no chat rooms.
We had friends and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cuts, broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from those accidents.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse.
We ate worms, and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, 22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
Those generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 60 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
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