Celebrate National Slinky Day on Wednesday
Aug. 30, 2017, is National Slinky Day. Credit: Slinky
Slinky lovers rejoice — Aug. 30 is National Slinky Day.
The Slinky — a toy that’s been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame — was created by accident. Naval engineer Richard T. James knocked a spring off his desk one day in 1943, and, as the coil of wire tumbled across the floor, it looked like it was walking. He thought it would make a great toy.
He was right. When the Slinky was demonstrated in Gimbels department store in Philadelphia in 1945, it sold the entire inventory of 400 in 90 minutes. Since then, hundreds of millions of them have sold worldwide.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
