When I was growing up, my family didn’t place value on books or reading or writing. For me, it was horrible because I loved them all. From as early as four or maybe before, I loved to play with letters and words. My mother thought it was strange. I was the fifth of seven children and the only one that would rather stay inside, playing with letters. I didn’t know they meant anything. I just loved playing with them. I used to cut letters out of the newspaper and play with them, arranging and re-arranging, much like Scrabble tiles (which I never even saw till I was in high school).
One day, on a thrift store trip, I saw this wonderful toy that I just had to have. My mother didn’t know why. She discouraged me and offered a doll but I persisted. She finally relented and bought me the toy….the learning toy. I loved to sit and play with it and when my mother said I had to go out into the backyard with the other kids, I would take my toy with me and sit on the steps. What was this toy? I never knew what it was called. It was an oval shaped orange slate with metal bars that had wooden letter tiles on it. You could move the tiles around the oval till they got to the right metal bar and then you slid the tile in there, creating words. I was too young to know about words. Too young to read; too young to write. So I just played. One time, my brother, David, ran by me on his way down the stairs to play tag with my other brothers and sisters and he told me I had spelled it wrong. I didn’t know what he meant. He said if I moved the “t” behind the “a” it would say “cat.” That’s how I found out that letters could mean words and that words could say things.
I kept my orange word toy for a long time, even after I had learned to read and write. Then it got lost. Decades later, in fact only a year or so ago, I was at an antique shop with my daughter and there was a plastic version of my learning toy! It was smaller and it was round instead of oval like mine but it was almost the same. On the box it said “Spell-o-matic” and there was a company name on it. I went home and looked online, typing in the Spell-o-matic till I found one that was just exactly like the one I had as a child. I bought it online and a week later I received it in the mail. I treasure it.
how cool… i cant picture the toy,, but i do love the nostalgia involved…..
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I was an early reader. While other kids went traipsing through the woods or shot hoops on the local cement court, I sat and wrote words. Or read a book.
I’m still that way. Words mean so much . . . they have a life of their own, are powerful and poignant, and give up what it takes to change our little corner of the world.
Speaking of toys, my favorite was my Stretch Armstrong . . . until my sister punctured his thick skin and all the gunk oozed out. I searched for one on ebay and almost bought it.
I’m glad you got your treasure back.
Brian
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I can’t remember that toy either, and I’m pretty sure we are the same age! It’s cool that you were able to get another. My sister bought me my childhood toys one time for a Christmas present. I would have never thought that she’d ever see them again, I surely have never! For all I know, she could have bought the ones my mother garage saled so many years ago!
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Pan, you’d be surprised at what’s still available out there. My Spell-o-matic was produced for schools. Somehow the one I got as a child made it into a thrift shop. They were made up until the 80’s but in different forms. I vaguely remember seeing one in one of the teacher supply stores when my son was in grade school but it was made of plastic and it was a different shape, yet I recognized it as having morphed from the one I had.
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That would have been a cool toy to have growing up. Like you, my family didn’t value reading. I had a toy dog that did backflips if you turned the key in its side.
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Oh! You don’t know how you cracked me up, Stevo! It’s a good thing there was no one else in the house or they would have wondered if I had fallen off of my rocker!
Yeah, my parents tried to give me dolls that talked when you pulled a string in their back!
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Hey Corina! Thanks for visiting me! How did you stumble on my blog? This is a wonderful memory for you—well sorta. Old toys….how fun! I’ll bookmark you. I like it here and I’ll read more later.
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Hi Julie. I followed a link on Mo’s Manic Monday this week and ended up at your blog. I hope you come back here. I’ll go visit you again!
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I remember those from my early grade classrooms. I thought they were pretty fun, myself. I’m glad your mom decided to give you the toy you wanted, even if you didn’t understand yet why you wanted it … and didn’t know you’d be playing happily with words for the rest of your life.
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Corina,
Thanks for the memory. Being the odd one out of the family (I read encyclopedias after that James Bond movie had the heroine tell Bond that is how she learned about things), I can so relate to your post. I have bookmarked your site and plan to return to it over and over.
Best regards,
Michael
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Hello – I was wondering if you could please help me. I came across your blog and was wondering if you could please tell me the name on the box of the Spell-O-Matic – would any chance it say Scribe on the box or an address in Chicago? I would be very grateful if you could please get back to me as I have been looking to trace the origins of the Spell-O-Matic products for a very long time.
please drop me an email or please visit the website.
thanks so much – Anthony.
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