But I have already digressed and that was only the first paragraph!
Moving along...
It was the birthday of the youngest of the three kids. She had always dreamed of having a shiny new Slinky for her birthday. She talked about it non-stop to the other two kids who constantly had to tell her to shut up about the Slinky. Of course, this only caused her to sing the Slinky Song at the top of her lungs. Repeatedly. Loudly. And with the gusto of the criminally insane.
The Slinky was invented by the Bic Corporation and was originally part of the Bic pen. Any first year engineering student (no, not train engineers, mechanical engineers) knows that if you take your pen apart, you will see the small metal coil that lets you "click" your pen to advance the ink tip and click it again to retract it. One day the executives at Bic's corporate headquarters, were trying to figure out how to break into the toy industry because, let's face it; pens are pretty much all manufactured the same and are, in a word, boring.
Herman, the CEO's son, was bored. He hated these meetings and so he was absently and repeatedly clicking his pen, tearing it apart and putting it back together when he suddenly said, "By Bic, it's Slinky!" Everyone else just stared at him and clicked their Bics because Herman never had anything useful to contribute and everyone knew the only reason he had a job there was because he was the boss' kid. However, once they set aside their skepticism that Herman might have something valuable to say this time, they knew he was onto something.
After all, what kid wouldn't want a coiled spring to play with? It will walk down stairs! Alone! Possibly in pairs! It will make a slinkity sound! How utterly cool can this be?
Cue the angel chorus! "LAAAAAAAA!!!!"
Behold, the Slinky was born.
Which is why on February 21, 1977, my sister was running around the house dreaming of a Slinky. She continuously hounded me to tell her what she was getting for her birthday. I refused to comply, even when she threatened me with bodily harm because I would never stoop so low as to tell someone what they were getting for their birthday or Christmas. Never. Well, I might have been able to be bribed in order to disclose sensitive information, but no one ever tried that. Anyway, at some point she said, "Well, just give me a hint." So, I did. This was her hint:
Just by me singing the Slinky Song, repeatedly, loudly and with the gusto of the criminally insane, she figured out that she would be getting a Slinky for her birthday. That's because she was quick, my sister, oh yes indeed, she was smart for such a young age! They even wanted her to skip kindergarten because thanks to me, she knew everything there was to learn in that grade! Which by the way, she has never thanked me for so I'll need to discuss this with her in the near future.
But I digress. Again. That's twice so far for anyone counting.
Also, by just singing a commercial jingle, I stayed out of trouble for telling her, because technically, I was only singing a song albeit with a slight maniacal edge to it. Until Mom heard me and told me to stop it before Mel figured it out. Oops. Too late. Sorry Mom.
Finally, it was time for Mel to open her presents and wonder of all wonders! There was the prized, coveted and oft dreamed of Slinky.
Now what do we do with it?
The truth is, a Slinky is a rather useless and even slightly cruel toy to give to a kid who lives in a ranch house. There really is no real way to play with a Slinky in a house like that. So, since we had no stairs, we had to commandeer every book in the house so we could excitedly watch the Slink, as we lovingly referred to it, walk down the books.
Apparently, my sister's Slink was sort of like a toddler in that it would walk down approximately one encyclopedia before needing help to continue the journey to the next and the next...and..the...........next.
We ended up playing with the box since it was much more exciting than Herman's invention. Then one day we said, "Hey! That Slinky would make a great "clicker" in a giant pen!"
I said, "I'm already on it." After all, I was the writer of the family. Of course I would want a giant pen with which to write almost as much as my sister wanted that Slinky.
And now you know how those giant pens you see at Christmas were invented.
She got a Stretch Armstrong for Christmas that year too, but that's a story for a different post.
(The history and origin of the Slinky may or may not have happened that way. You will need to google and wikipedia that to find out more information.)
(Didn't you just love the green shag carpet on the stairs of the Slinky commercial? You just have to love the utter ugliness of the 70's! And it was as if no one ever thought to say, "You know, this really long carpet is kind of stupid and hard to keep clean and I'm really not all that excited about raking leaves so why do I want carpet that has to be raked as well?")
