11 Objects That Defined Summer Fun, Decade by Decade

Roller skates had been around for decades by the 1920s, but improvements in skate design helped turn them into one of the Roaring Twenties' biggest crazes. Ball bearings, introduced in the early 20th century, made skating smoother and easier. Hundreds of public roller rinks opened as the hobby grew in popularity, writes Ann-Victoria Phillips in The Complete Book of Roller Skating.

The craze quickly spread across college campuses. "The roller skating fad has increased in popularity until now it is quite common to see men and women skating from their homes to classes," The Daily Illini reported in 1927. The newspaper added that skates had become so popular they were banned on campus sidewalks until after 4 p.m. to "relieve congestion."

"Roller skating, this time around, was something to enjoy for its own sake," Phillips writes. "One could dance, play games and do things on skates with more ease than was possible during the earlier period."

Even during the Great Depression, the Radio Flyer wagon sold 1,500 units a day. Founder Antonio Pasin began building wooden wagons at age 16. By 1930, he was mass-producing the stamped-steel Radio Flyer, which sold for less than $3. In the 1950s, high sides were added to the design “for carting kids,” The Strong museum notes.

“Radio Flyer occasionally changed the design of their wagons to reflect current trends in transportation, but the red wagon is their iconic product,” Parnett-Dwyer says. “The wagon sufficed as a tool for practical tasks like gardening and to transport picnic gear, but with the use of your imagination, it became any type of vehicle your heart desired.”

Children have blown soap bubbles for centuries. In the 19th century, soapmaker A. & F. Pears helped popularize the pastime with a famous advertising campaign featuring John Everett Millais' painting of a child blowing bubbles.

The modern craze began around 1940, when Chicago’s Chemtoy Corporation started bottling a solution with a wand, and “a true enthusiasm for the activity erupted,”Time reports. Blowing soap bubbles has endured. Today, approximately 200 million bottles of bubble solution are sold each year.

In the suburbs of the 1950s, the bicycle became a symbol of childhood independence. 

“Many consider the bicycle an essential part of American childhood,” Parnett-Dwyer says. “During the 1950s, kids growing up in new suburban neighborhoods relied on their bikes for transportation and a taste of freedom.”

Schwinn, she adds, was one of the most popular brands. “Around 1950, Schwinn introduced what would become one of the most successful kids’ bikes of the decade—Black Phantom,” Parnett-Dwyer says. The bike featured whitewall balloon tires, red and black trim, an integrated lock and a fender light. Cruiser bikes, including those made by Shelby, were also popular.

Wham-O’s Hula Hoop debuted in 1958 and became an instant hit, with 25 million hoops sold in the first four months. Kids twirled the 3-foot-wide brightly colored plastic hoops around their waists, arms and necks, while adults used them for exercise. 

According to NBC News, sales topped 100 million (at $1.98 each) in one year, “more than one hula hoop for every two Americans at the time.” But sales then stalled until 1965, when, according to Timeless Toys by Tim Walsh, Wham-O relaunched the toy with ball bearings inside the tubing, “which made a great sound as they raced around the hoop—and dubbed it the Shoop Shoop Hula Hoop.” 

The new version spiked sales. “Test-marketed this summer in Miami, the hoops caught on with a new moppet generation too young to have been in on the first fad,” Time reported in 1967. “Right after Labor Day, Shoop Shoops went national. Manhattan stores have sold 400,000 of them, Chicago 225,000, and nationwide sales have already shot past 3,000,000.”

Invented by upholsterer Robert Carrier, the Slip ’N Slide turned backyards into water parks. According to Walsh, Carrier originally stitched a garden hose to a long sheet of artificial leather so his son could slide safely.

Wham-O released a vinyl version in 1961, and its popularity grew into the 1970s and beyond. The Atlantic reports that more than 30 million units were sold over the next 50 years. "It's crazy, people scoot like seals!" an ad read, according to the publication.

But the fun came with risks. “Several serious injuries sustained by adults that took the Slip 'N Slide off the market in 1977 and then again in the early 1990s,” Walsh writes. Still, he adds, “like millions of kids who grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, we had countless hours of summer fun on Robert Carrier’s invention.”

Debuting at the International Toy Fair in 1979, the doghouse-shaped Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine gave kids icy treats on hot summer days. “What is the most popular name in children’s lore these days?” a 1979 Chicago Tribune article asked following the fair. “If licensing rights are any indication, Snoopy wins the title, paws down.”

The popularity of the toy, which did not require batteries, continued into the 1980s. “A basic slushie creator in almost every sense, it dutifully ground hunks of ice for as long as your arms were willing to work the crank,” Time reported.

Play began to shift indoors with the rise of video games. The Nintendo Game Boy, released in 1989, followed the major success of the Nintendo Entertainment System home console.

“While the Game Boy lagged behind contemporary handheld rivals like Sega’s Game Gear in raw technical specifications, it excelled in producing games that made the system a must-buy,” Kurano says. “Titles like Tetris and Super Mario Land helped propel the Game Boy to tens of millions of units sold.”

The introduction of the Game Boy’s Link Cable allowed multiplayer gaming, she adds. It was a feature that was crucial to launching Pokémon in 1996, one of the most successful franchises of all time.

“For many millennials, the Game Boy is a symbol of their childhood and in a lot of ways represents a simpler time,” Kurano says. “For what the machine lacked in graphics and overall technical specs, it made up for in its fun, addictive and universally loved games.”

Razor scooters exploded in popularity in 2000. According to the Los Angeles Times, Razor sold more than 5 million of its aluminum kick scooters at $100 a pop in just the second half of that year. In 2026, the company reports more than 50 million have been sold. 

“The Razor was the first hit toy of the new millennium,” The Atlantic reports. “On long-shadowed schoolyard evenings, all the cool kids would take turns on the scooters, testing out tricks and making skid marks on the pavement." They didn’t always end in fun, though. “Razor scooters and other ‘ride-on’ toys sent 110,000 kids to the hospital in 2001,” the publication adds. 

Technology marked a transition for play in the 2010s, when smartphones and tablets became central to the lives of children and teens. According to a 2010 report from the Pew Research Center, 75 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds owned cell phones. Tablets soon followed, with the launch of Apple’s iPad in 2010, the LeapPad by LeapFrog in 2011 and the Amazon Fire tablet in 2015.

A 2015 report from Common Sense Media found that teens averaged nearly nine hours of entertainment media daily, while 8- to 12-year-olds averaged six hours. “This includes watching TV, movies, and online videos; playing video, computer, and mobile games; using social media; using the Internet; reading; and listening to music,” the report states.

Pop It! became the toy of 2021. Sales rose “more than 10-fold” that year, reported The New York Times, fueled by a viral TikTok video of a capuchin monkey playing with the silicone bubble toy. The video garnered 11 billion views in less than a year. Adrienne Appell of The Toy Association told the Times that the Pop It! may have become a pandemic-era hit in part because of its potential calming effects. Pop It! came on the heels of 2017’s fidget spinner craze, but has shown more staying power thanks to new iterations like balls, keychains and bubbles.

Squish toys, like the popular NeeDoh Nice Cube, are also popular. These toys are part of a long tradition of tactile playthings, from Creepy Crawlers in the 1960s and Stretch Armstrong in the 1970s to Nickelodeon Gak in the 1990s.