ZMT: Daily Fact: What everyday item is in the National Toy Hall of Fame?

Daily Fact: What everyday item is in the National Toy Hall of Fame?

Original photo by Shirota Yuri/ Unsplash

The stick has been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

From teddy bears to train sets, classic playthings of youth often conjure memories of a gleaming toy store, holidays, or birthdays. So curators at The Strong National Museum of Play branched out when they added the stick to their collection of all-time beloved toys. Among the most versatile amusements, sticks have inspired central equipment in several sports, including baseball, hockey, lacrosse, fencing, cricket, fishing, and pool. Humble twigs are also ready-made for fetch, slingshots, toasting marshmallows, and boundless make-believe.

Located in Rochester, New York — about 70 miles northeast of Fisher-Price's headquarters — The Strong acquired the fledgling National Toy Hall of Fame in 2002. (It was previously located in the Gilbert House Children's Museum in Salem, Oregon.) To date, 74 toys have been inducted, including Crayola Crayons, Duncan Yo-Yos, and bicycles. The stick was added in 2008, three years after another quintessential source of cheap childhood delight: the cardboard box.

Numbers Don't Lie

Length (in feet) of the largest stick of chewing gum ever created

3.6

Most consecutive pogo stick jumps, a record obtained during "Pogopalooza 2015" in Philadelphia

88,047

Year Burt Reynolds directed and starred in an adaptation of the 1983 Elmore Leonard novel "Stick"

1985

Revenue of the global toy market in 2020

$94.7 billion

Sticks were the first timekeeping device used by humans.

Circa 3500 BCE in the modern-day Middle East, Mesopotamians rooted sticks in the ground to craft the earliest versions of sundials. The approximate time could be determined by measuring the length and position of the stick's shadow. Over the next 1,500 years, Egyptians substituted stone obelisks that functioned in a similar way. Since the late 19th century, America has been home to the world's tallest obelisk, the 555-foot Washington Monument.

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Daily Fact: What everyday item is in the National Toy Hall of Fame?