Pulling Each Other Along

Dave Clark contracted polio shortly after he was born. As a boy he discovered that play put him on equal terms with his able-bodied classmates. He may have worn leg braces, but he could still hit a baseball or stop a hockey puck. Play helped him become one of the kids, instead of the kid that stood out because of the crutches which were his constant companions. In his new book Diamond in the Rough: The Dave Clark Story, Dave shares a number of stories about the transformative power of play. Whether it was climbing the rope in gym class when no other kid could or growing up to become a professional knuckleball pitcher, Dave found that play changed his life.

Play also connects us. Here's a link to a video of Dave telling an incredible story about a classmate named Ernie Pound who used a Radio Flyer wagon and a seemingly small act of graciousness to impact Dave forever. 48 years later, Ernie surprises Dave at his book signing!

The Weird and Wonderful

David Moye writes about the weird for AOL NEWS. The world of toys certainly qualifies. In Toyland, we tell the story of how Richard James, the inventor of Slinky left his wife and six kids, with the Slinky company in debt, and joined a religious cult in Bolvia. It was 1960, 15 years after he'd invented the iconic toy. He never returned to his family and died there in South America in 1974, somewhere far from home. Weird.

The story we go on to tell in the film is how Betty saved her family and the company that she co-founded. We hear and see how she licensed the idea for the Slinky dog, commissioned the writing of the iconic Slinky jingle, and ultimately gave us a plaything that has sold over 300 million copies and become a piece of pop culture. That's how the weird becomes the wonderful.

Read more about the weird and wonderful in David's article, Hard Knocks and Nerf Balls: The Business of Creating Toys.