In the exact same year I walked down the street in Rahway ,New Jersey with my dollar in my hand to buy a brand new, bight yellow hula hoop. I think it took me years to figure out how to really use it.

In its second year availability, but decided to stick with the tried and true Blue Flame Six as no "V" is present under the blue bow-tie medallion.

I would kill for that shirt! Size XL, of course. (And full cuffs would be alright, too.)

During these years in late 1950s Bedford, a popular game played at the schoolyard was called "Pisteree". It was an indigenous game to the Quebec Eastern Townships in the '50s, and went like this...

In the gravel playground of the school, you cut a groove with a stick, about six inches long and three inches deep. Then cut a broomstick at four inches and three feet, making for the key instruments of play. Overlap the small stick over the groove, hit it with the long stick to twirl it in the air, then bat it to the outfield. Count points by "walking" the short stick to where play stopped, in increments of "five", as in "five, ten, fifteen, twenty,....". We played that for years between 1956 and 1961.

Is there any history out there of this game?

Long ago, in my hometown East Aurora NY, the Theater would have different contests between Saturday Double-Features. In 1958, I won a Hula-Hoop Contest...I was able to keep it going the longest.
The Secret: It's all in the hips!

A late 50's, early 60's (mild) sign of rebellion for the pre-teen set. At least it was where I grew up in the Midwest.

Your smile is positively too cute.

for kids!

Nuthin' weird about it.

Same year, probably same age (or close to it), I was 6 and we were stationed at the time not all that far from you at RCAF Station Goose Bay, Labrador. My sister and I both had hula hoops and loved them. What great exercise too, when you think about it. :)

At 16 yrs old I got my drivers licence and sped away in the family car .. a 1956 Chev 210 4dr stick shift.
Dipped the girls pigtails in the inkwell. Got retrained to write right-handed instead of left. I know the strap well.
Yo-yos and aggies were the recess activities.
I had a black dog named "cinder".

Loved to watch the girls practice their Hula Hoops !

Great photo

must have been a popular name for black cocker spaniels in the 1950s. My Cindy's full name was Cinders Ebony Night.

I think that there is a deep and weird psychological quirk in humans that produces that smile from a round hoop of plastic; "Hey! everybody!!!!! Look at me! I'm doing it!!!!!

The '56 Chevy, hula-hoop, little red (probably metal) wagon and of course the child's attire & hairdo. Many good memories.

"Say, how do you put gas in this thing?"

Said by me as a kid working as a pump jockey, to customer with wry grin. He then showed me how to flip the tail light open to access the filler tube.

In September of 1958 I was a grade 6 student at the old Brown School off of Avenue Road in Toronto, Ontario. There were separate girls and boys entrances, and the unpaved, fenced school yard had an imaginary line down the middle. At recess, the girl's side was a forest of spinning hula hoops, and the boy's side was a sea of marble games, or "alleys" as we called them. A deep purple Crown Royal Whiskey cloth bag held the marbles. No boy dared to use a hula hoop, and no girl played with marbles. And no one crossed that boundary! To signal the end of recess, the back door of the school was opened and a teacher rang a large brass hand bell. Back in the classroom, we dipped our pens in inkwells and filled our workbooks. Misbehaviour was dealt with quickly out in the hall with a leather strap.

It took 50+ years but that front flip hair do is in style today