An Old Fashion Toy

The other day I was helping Brombeere do some cleaning at work.  We were cleaning out a closet that hadn't been cleaned that thoroughly for quite some time when we came across an item the likes of which I haven't seen for years and years.

We used to call them "tops".  What was amazing was that both pieces were there and in good shape!  The top and the string.  These were all the rage when I was in middle school - everybody had one.  Teachers were always taking them away from kids because they were disrupting class.  During lunch there were always several them going in the halls around the school building.

Of course I had to try it out and see if I could still make one work.  You take the string and wind it around the bottom of the top.  Yeah, backwards, I know.  But that's how it was done.  Well, maybe it was just a matter of winding the string and then holding it upside down to start.

So you get it all wound up and hold it with the end of the string between your fingers.  They always had something there to help it stay in place. This one had a big letter "H", which, while a bit cumbersome, still worked.  It served the purpose.

Then you stepped back to where you had a little room to give it a throw and let it go.  It would unwind as you tossed it to the floor and that would give the top its spin.  So while Brombeere continued to work, I had to play for a few minutes.  I was trying to get a good spin on it and get a movie of it at the same time. And I did but it wouldn't upload to the blog.  Disappointing.  But it sure looked cool to me!   And she let me keep it!