My parents liked to invest in "educational toys" so we had one of these beauties, created by Texas Instruments in 1978. I don't remember much about it except that I could play a kind of hangman on it...I think it was called "mystery word." I guess the object was to improve spelling. There were also other versions called Speak & Math and Speak & Read. I know we had the math one too, and possibly even the reading version. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on this toy and it reminded me that an early version of the Speak & Spell was featured in the Spielberg film, E.T.If you want to really relive this game, check out this link. It allows you to actually play with a Speak & Spell online.
3 comments:
Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! I wanted a speak and spell so terribly bad in first grade. I was desperate for it. I begged and begged and begged for one for Christmas, but my parents and grandparents and everyone else said NO WAY, it was $50, and that was much too expensive of a Christmas gift. In my shrewd first grade thinking I begged them to pool their money and promised not to be upset if I only had one present under the tree. They still said no way. And I didn't get one!
A few months after Christmas, my second cousin, who had every toy imaginable, loaned me his speak and spell for a few months. I was ecstatic. I played with it every day and cried when we had to give it back. At school on the back table there were three of these, the math one and two spelling machines. I used to RACE through my work so I could run back and play with the speak and spell.
Okay, any comment that begins with Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! is pretty fun. I'm excited that this post connected with you, Rachel. :)
I wanted one too! I never got one--but my dentist's office had one for the kids to play with.
Deeann
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