Toys

I was talking to my mother the other day about topics that might make good blog posts.  She told me that some Piatt was born the year the Hula Hoop was invented.  I was apparently only half listening, because I now have no idea whom she was talking about.  I thought perhaps I would look up the year of the hoop's birth and figure out which Piatt she was referencing, but I learned that the hula hoop was conceptually invented by the Greeks in the 5th Century.  No Piatt was born then, so far as I know.  The modern hula hoop was branded as such by Wham-O toys in 1957.  No Piatts born then either.  Perhaps I mis-heard the entire conversation.  Regardless, it did get me thinking about toys.  If the same toy can be popular in 5th Century Greece and 20th Century America, there may well be something universal about the ways we play and what we find entertaining.  Children and adults alike are fascinated by they toys of yester-year.  

Hula Hoop, ca 1960

By now we all know that Mac-A-Cheek was opened for tours in 1912, but of course that is not the entire story.  William McCoy Piatt opened his drawing room in order to display his cabinet of curiosities, but the rest of the house remained a private residence.  Over the years more and more of the home was opened for tours.  When my mother was a child in the 1950s and '60s the family of five lived primarily in a small apartment in the back of the house (their bedrooms are now offices, and their kitchen is now the gift shop), but they kept a family living room and business office in an area that is now open for tours.  My step-father and I call this room the Star Room because of the large star in the parquet floor, but this room and the adjacent dining room were the last part of the house to be included on the tour.  Much as the drawing room is furnished as it was when William McCoy first displayed his curiosity cabinet, the back part of the house contains artifacts from the lives of the last Piatts to live at Mac-A-Cheek.  This is by far one of the most popular rooms, and I think this is so for two reasons.  First, visitors are given the opportunity to explore their own history and to share that history with their families.  The middle of the 20th Century is still very much part of our current story, and there is something very compelling about the familiar presented within the museum context.  Second, the whimsy of toys is irresistible.  Whether they are toys we remember from our youth or toys that far predate our childhoods, there is something so charming about them that we can't help but smile.

Below are a few pictures of my favorite toys on exhibit in Mac-A-Cheek.  Enjoy!

Winky Dink:  the first interactive television game

Barbie, 1961

Barbie, 1961