Everyday Canvas

Beauty and Function // Toys and Board Games

Prompt: What board game is your favorite? Do you still play board games with family or friends? How do you feel about so many of the games be updated?

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I used to play Chinese checkers, chess, and backgammon with my cousins and friends when I was young. Later on, I taught Chess to my kids and my older son became quite good at it, later acquiring a good ranking in Manhattan Chess Club. I can’t play chess anymore, especially against him.

I recall playing with my kids these board games: Memory, Sorry, Monopoly, Parcheesi, Go to the Head of the Class, Game of the States. There are others mostly to do with Geography and words and such, but I can’t remember their names. There was also a trend of making and selling board games with the names of the popular TV shows, then, but I don’t think we ever played those.

My favorite board game of all time is probably Chess, although now I couldn’t keep my mind on it to win or even stay put without yawning throughout a game.

Prompt: Did you know Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on TV? What's the first toy you can remember being advertised?
What kind of media was it advertised? Book, catalog, newspaper, radio, television Did you get it?

To tell you the truth, I never liked Mr. Potato Head. It was an ugly toy; at least, that’s what I thought when given to me as a gift. I remember it being advertised on TV, though.

After I turned four, I only liked books. I played with toys when there were other children around, but not by myself. My favorite toy, earlier, was a teddy bear. I know because I have a photo with me holding a tiny bear by its throat. I remember seeing teddy bear photos in magazines. Probably they were women’s magazines, but I don’t recall the names of the publications. I think Teddy Bears came into being when Teddy Roosevelt was the president. (No, I am not that old! )

I googled Teddy Bears and it says in the History Channel, “1903-The first Teddy bear goes on sale,” but I don’t know when Teddy Bears were first advertised or where. Come to think of it, they might have been in an old Sears Catalog.

Prompt: "It's important that my products are beautiful but it matters that they are functional." How do you feel about this?

Well, I think beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Function is for everybody’s use. The same goes not only for objects but for people, too. Beautiful people, at least those our society nowadays deems to be beautiful, may be good to look at, but what people do is more important. If their being in the world doesn’t help anyone or any cause, what good is their beauty?

Thus, I’d adapt the quotation to my thinking in this way: “The importance of my products is in their being functional; their beauty is only a plus.”