Old Toys with Weird Names

There are some toys with unusual names where just the name of the playthings inspires interest. Finding out there is movement involved only makes the attraction keener. Who could resist the allure of a whimmydiddle or a flipperdinger?  Especially if they could be made using natural materials around the farm, maybe even gourds?

A whimmydiddle, also known as a geehaw, is an Appalachian toy found in the hills of North Carolina made of laurel with notches cut into the stick. A propeller or whirligig is at the end and twirls when another stick is rubbed along the cut marks on the first stick. Eventually, a person can make the whirligig move one way or the other.  The ability to do this is why the whimmydiddle is also called a hooey stick, a truth stick, and a voodoo stick since the direction the whirligig spins can be interpreted as a yes or a no to an answer. The Collins English Dictionary gives an insight into the hooey stick name stating the definition is nonsense and rubbish. If a whimmydiddle can detect nonsense and rubbish, then this is a fitting name for the whimmydiddle!  How does the hooey get detected?  Is the truth stick really judging hooey?  Steven Shepard explains the trick!

Another Toy with an Interesting Name

The flipperdinger is a whole other toy but one with movement as well, although challenging. It is a hollow tube such as a reed (or maybe the dipper part of a dipper gourd!) with another, smaller, hollow reed attached to one end holding a small ball.  Over the ball is a metal ring which looks like a basketball hoop. When the main reed is blown into, the air rushes along the reed and forces its way up the smaller reed making the ball levitate. It is a game of air forces and producing enough air to make the ball go up through the wire ring and down again to its original resting place. This might be a little harder to master but what fun it must be trying!  Look at the youngster trying to make it work.

Simple Colonial Toys

Grown in the garden and spun like a top!

Since toys were derived from simple materials handy in a child's environment, the mechanisms were simple as well. Homestead Folk Toys shows several versions of traditional toys from several time periods. Tops play a large part of traditional toys as so thaumatropes.  Spinner gourds get their name from the spinning action they produce when spun quickly by the neck-end of the gourd.

Thaumatropes, also referred to as whirligigs or a buzzsaw toy, are another type of spinning action involved two different but related images spun so fast they appear to be moving - as early motion picture show!

The balero, or toss-and-catch toy, uses eye-hand coordination. This takes a variety of shapes but basically uses a string to connect two objects: one is caught by the other after swinging it into the air and letting gravity do the work of dropping it into or onto the other object.

Bilbo: another term for a toss/catch toy.

Any of these toys could be easily translated into a gourd toy. The top can easily be make with a spinner gourd, the thaumatrope with a large disco gourd wall, and toss/catch toy with a hollowed out gourd on a stick or a long handled gourd with a small gourd attached with a string.  All would exhibit a gourd with motion!

So now, given this information, what other playthings could be adapted, or re-fashioned using gourds?

Colonial Toys Using Natural Products

Colonial toys were made of materials commonly handy around the house or farm such as wood, bits of cloth, sticks, corn husks, animal bones, and acorn tops. Does this suggest the use of gourds would have been a natural leap since gourds were grown on farms and, once dehydrated, took on some of the characteristics of wood with the added bonus of being curved?  Debbie Starnes of the Indiana Gourd Society explains the process for making a gourd head doll.  In fact, dolls may be the most ancient toy since evidence of dolls exists from as early as the 3rd century.  It is only a small leap to think industrialization would have led to mechanisms for a doll to move its parts such as arms and legs.

What proof is there for early dolls made with gourds?  The same article talks about toys being made from local materials such as gourds filled with pebbles to make rattles. If gourds were grown locally in gardens and are farms, then they would have been available for a wide variety of purposes: medicinal ritual, musical instruments, dance, and maybe even toys.

What is the Point of Toys?

It seems the point of toys is development, according to Felicia McMahon. Immature members of mammal or bird groups use toys in their play to mimic mature behaviors in preparation for future necessary skills. The skills of hunting and protecting can be practiced before the need actually exists. She states other groups do not exhibit play behaviors requiring toys, however, Sarah Zielinski of ScienceNews presents some opposing thoughts. Animals who are healthy and not stressed will exhibit what appears to be playful behaviors. Even a turtle at the National Zoo will bat around a basketball and otters will play an electric piano. Does depressing keys on a keyboard constitute playing?

Perhaps toys historically provided development opportunities for youngsters of many groups but toys exist for adults such as desktop drum sets and other office tchotchkes.  Can toys exist for entertainment value only?

What is a toy?

Before figuring out how to combine gourds with toys, what IS a toy? According to Felicia McMahon in her Britannica entry about toys, a toy is an object used by children as playthings. These items can be imagined as anything real or unreal and used to explore the world around them.

Manipulating objects such as jacks, dolls, and even puzzles encourage cognitive skills and awareness. Jacks may have been used for physical development to increase eye-hand coordination. Dolls provide role-playing opportunities to increase social skills and creative thinking. Pam Meyers at the Childhood Development Institute explains puzzles offer the opportunities for memory development, problem-solving, and fine motor skills. 

Toys have been prevalent in the far-off past of humankind and in many cultures. Why?  What's the point of toys?

Welcome!

Welcome to Old Gourd Toys, a commentary about gourds, toys, and how the mechanics of old-fashioned toys can be combined with gourds to make moving gourdiacs. Gourds have long been made into birdhouses, bowls, hourglasses, powder horns, and tools but moving toys?  Let's find out.