A few months ago I was involved in a discussion about, of all things, the Hula-Hoop. It set off a lot of memories, and only now am I getting here to post some thoughts…only to find that today is the anniversary of the patenting of the hula-hoop in 1963 by Hasbro Toys. I would have been about 11 or 12 then, and remember getting my first hula-hoop. It was a lot of fun, and great exercise. I had great fun with it, until one day it was missing. The next day I saw the girl next door playing with a hula-hoop and surprise surprise, it looked JUST like the one I had. So I went over, and confronted her, asking her where she got it. She said her parents had purchased it for her, but I knew better, the marking that I had put on it to identify it as mine was there. How did the story end? I decided that it wasn’t worth fighting over. I don’t remember exactly what happened, whether I ever got the hula hoop back, or lost interest, there were so many other things to do in the great outdoors, and she remained a friend.
Now you can get some really advanced Hula-Hoops for exercise, like the Digital Fitness Hula Hoop
Here’s a GREAT video of a talented young man in Ireland doing tricks with hula-hoops. Turn down, or off the sound if you don’t like lively music. Enjoy…he’s great!
Did you know the inventor of the Hula Hoop, Richard Knerr recently passed away?
What an amazing invention and story of American pop culture.
I just wrote about Hoop Dancing, which is one of the latest fitness crazes. It is a great workout and fun. I loved to hula hoop as a young girl and am enjoying it even more now, as I’m learning to do some pretty neat moves with it to music.