Was just reading an Uncle John's Bathroom reader and came upon an article on hula hoops. Said that Wham-O started selling those in 1958. That would have made me 7 years old. I know we were living in South Carolina at the time. My brother Mike and I wanted a hula hoop - at least I suppose we did since my dad took on one of his "projects". He wasn't going to spend good money on something that he could easily make. He then proceeded to cut up a garden hose and tacked the circle together with a piece of wood (I think) and declared we now had a hula hoop. Unfortunately he used one of those old black garden hoses. The thing was super heavy to pick up and just about impossible to twirl around once we got it up off the ground. We did get our store bought hula hoops.
I have a vague recollection of my brother, Mike, being in a contest and lasting a long, long time. Don't remember him winning it but do know that he did good. Have to think that I also entered the contest but maybe not either way - know that I didn't do as well as Mike did.
Years later the skateboard became the popular thing to have. Dad to the rescue once again. We had some regular roller skates - the kind that used a key - and he dismantled those and connected them to boards and voila - skate boards. This time it was a success. He made one that was big enough for 3 kinds to get on and also one that one person barely would be able to use. We had a blast with those. Our house - on the base - was on a gently sloping road which made it perfect for us. I remember hours and hours of skateboarding on that street with friends and my brothers. We were at Richards-Gabeur (SP?) AFB and I was probably about 13/14 when we moved there.
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