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The HOOP STORY: Burtons find long lost toy for Mema A quest for a remembered childhood toy is successful with a chance stop at Burton's Tin Shop on Reed Street and Donald Burton's network of sources, including Jr. Burton "If you see an old lady out chasing a hoop, guiding it with a tobacco stick affixed with a flattened tin can, don't throw a net over her She's just happily lost in her second childhood." By Geniece Leftwich Marcum Now that I have attained the status of great Me-Ma to three wonderful little rascals ages 2, 4, soon to be 6, I often get a first hand look at many of today's toys. To be truthful I wouldn't know what to do with some of them if they were mine. They seem to have been much simpler in my time, but that was over 70 years ago. Toys were scarce around our home back then and the ones we enjoyed the most were made by my brothers, Ed and Rondyl, who were closest to me in age. These two didn't have a lot of playtime, as they learned early what working on a farm meant. Whenever they did find themselves free for a few hours, they made some really neat toys -- the kind that entertain for hours on end, then linger in the memory for a lifetime. Anytime they weren't at work in the fields, my brothers used whatever materials were at hand creating their bows and arrows, sling shots, stilts for high stepping and my favorite, the hoop game. These were their real valuables back then. I was allowed to sit and watch, but never allowed to meddle or tag along when they went hunting. Those times were shared with buddies their own age, like close neighbors Robert and Howard Clark and Robert and Woodie Thompson, (Toodie, to those of us who shared his Bellview School years). He only became Woodie after a stint in the military during WWII, and a long sojourn in Chicago, which lasted for 50 years before he came back to his native Metcalfe County to stay. Ed and Rondyl decided one time to build themselves a car. They labored long and hard over this masterpiece. With hammers and saws, scrap pieces of plank and old bent nails that had been around the place longer even than our parents had, this vehicle soon began to take shape. Its axles were pieces of ancient two by fours and the wheels were rounds sawed from a sizable log in the woodpile, a smaller one was cut for the steering wheel. This car was big and crude and must have weighed a ton when finished, considering the materials used. But we did get a few rides down hill in it until the front axle broke. Although it was sad to lose a good toy, I don't think the boys ever tried to repair their biggest project. Somewhere, probably in their school book, they had undoubtedly seen a picture of children at play, chasing after a hoop they were rolling along with a short stick. Therefore when they discovered a rusted old iron hoop in the barn, they made up their own version of the Hoop game! They needed a stick with which to control the hoop. Lacking anything fancier, a piece of broken tobacco stick with a flattened tin can nailed to one end of it served the purpose well. It only took a minute to bend the sides of the can in sort of a U shape, and we had a whole new game to play! To use it, all you had to do was set the hoop rolling a little, then use the stick to push it along as fast as you wanted to run, keeping it straight or turning it as necessary with the curved sides of the tin can. Here was a toy fit for princes! Ed and Rondyl grew up, it seemed, just in time to follow our two older brothers into service in WWII, and the things they had made in boyhood became lost or broken like the car. I had wondered many times what became of our hoop, and wished I'd kept it. With the bumper crop of little people we are blessed with, I began wishing I could recreate this old game for them. Not only was it worlds of fun to play with, but all the running involved would surely use up an abundance of energy. I had about given up on the idea of finding another one though, since no one I'd asked could recall ever having seen one. I myself could not remember where the old hoop came from to start with. I knew that strong iron band had once had a useful purpose, but what? Then one day while visiting in Columbia, I passed a building with a sign that read, "Burton's Tin Shop." As I walked on, a thought hit me. If this shop owner works with tin, could he work with iron too? Maybe he could make me a hoop! I dialed the shop number and met the nicest people, Donald and Carol Burton. I explained to the Burtons that I was trying to replace an old toy we had when I was a child. I tried to describe the rusted old iron hoop we used and asked if they'd ever seen one like it. Donald's answer was "Why, I've chased one of them things many a mile when I was a kid." Ah-Ha! At last I had found somebody who knew what I was talking about. Not only that this man cleared up the mystery about where the rusted iron hoops came from to start with. They had once been used on the hubs of the old wagon wheels!Donald Burton also said he knew somebody who had one of the hoops now, he'd seen it recently at Junior (J.E.) Burton's place. I began to feel sorta like a kid again. Donald said he wasn't sure Junior would part with the hoop but to call and ask him anyway. I did call. Junior Burton said, "that old hoop has been around since 1909 and I guess I'd better keep it to pass on to the next generation."I thought for sure I'd have to give up on the idea of recreating the old toy from my childhood, but the next day Donald called from the tin shop to say he had rolled out a piece of steel to make a hoop for me! Donald's wife, Carol, said, "I never saw anybody as happy in my life as Don when he was rolling out that piece of steel. It brought back so many memories for him, you know." Next day Junior Burton called Donald back. He'd been looking around his barn and had found another old hoop that I could have. Such luck. Such great folks! Thanks to the Burtons, I now have two hoops to replace the one my brothers used to entertain themselves and me with. When we believe we've outgrown childhood toys, we usually fail to put them away for safe keeping, not thinking we will want them again someday. But not Junior Burton. He had carefully stored away the hoop he'd enjoyed so much as a boy. One day last year he said he got out his hoop and stick and went rolling it around the front of the house. His wife, Betty who had never seen it before, spotted her husband with his toy, and called out a warning, "Somebody will see you, and throw a net over you!" If you see an old lady out chasing a hoop, guiding it with a tobacco stick affixed with a flattened tin can, don't throw a net over her She's just happily lost in her second childhood. This story was posted on 2007-07-08 08:26:09
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