First published April 3, 2010
Remember the Hula Hoop? I sure do — I enjoyed hours of fun with it. I can remember my own personal record of keeping it up for half an hour. I hung my hands on the clothes line stretched across the backyard. I was really good at it and everyone I knew could at least keep it up a few minutes. As an adult I’ve participated in a couple of contests — one at a company picnic where it was down to me and the bosses’ wife and they made us walk spinning the hoop and she lost it, but I kept on going. (Maybe I should have lost that one.) Another time at a fancy awards dinner for the Hoosier Press, they had the contest and I won hands down. The young people couldn’t do it. You have to go slowly and keep the rhythm.
I Googled “Hula Hoop” and found some interesting facts. It started with the ancient Greeks who played with it both as a toy and an exercise device. Native American Indians have used the hoop in many ways. They rolled it on the ground and shot arrows through it to practice accuracy, and it was used in dances. Hoop-rolling also achieved fad status in England in the 1800s. Those hoops were wood fitted with metal strips or tires on the outer edge. This same fad traveled to the United States, and antique hoops are now favorite collector’s toys. The 50s toy known as the Hula Hoop was born out of the brainstorm of two American toy inventors who learned about an Australian practice. Arthur “Spud” Melin and Richard Knerr heard that Australian children used rings made of bamboo for exercise. They produced a plastic hoop in 1958 and promoted it around the Los Angeles, California, area by going to playgrounds, demonstrating the hoop to the kids, and giving away Hula Hoops. I think that’s the year I got my first hula hoop.
In four months, over 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in the United States for $1.98 each; worldwide, over 100 million were sold in 1958 alone. In Japan, the hoop was banned, and the Soviet Union described it as evidence of the decadence of American culture. At the peak of its popularity, Wham-O, Inc. produced 20,000 hoops per day; it is estimated that the plastic tubing for all the Hula Hoops sold would stretch around the world more than five times.
I also saw several Web sites giving the weight loss and exercise benefits of our little ‘ole Hula Hoop.
I’ve got to go dig out my Hula Hoop and see if I can get some thickness off this waist of mine. I’ll let ya know if it works.
Update from when this was first published 14 years ago: No my waistline has only grown larger. But I did ask for a new hula hoop about 10 years ago for my birthday, because I saw a really cool handmade one at one of those fancy Farmers Markets with vendors selling very pricey items (they are labor intensive items I understand). My daughter bought it for me – price is no object to her (didn’t inherit my penny pinching gene). It is 45” in diameter almost to my neck in height and it’s weighted – BEST hula hoop I’ve ever used! I can still keep it up for as long as I can stand up.