I am starting a series on the things that have interested me over the course of my life.
I enjoy trying new things. New gadgets, new ideas, new hobbies. I don’t stick it out with all of them, but often, some aspect of them stays with me and benefits me later in life.
One of the most intriguing facets of new things is that I never know how they will become integrated, what uses they may have, or what will come of them.
The series starts back in elementary school, with a little game known as Pogs.
Pogs
Pogs – if you dont know – are small cardboard discs with printed designs on them. The game started in Hawaii using the tops of bottle caps.
It consists of a stack of cardboard discs, and a “slammer”, a heavy metal or plastic disck that you drop onto the stack, in an attempt to flip as many over as possible.
Often, the game is played for keeps, which means you get to keep any pogs that you flip over during your turn. This was my introduction to gambling :)
Now, if you like to play pogs in the 2nd grade, chances are you will lose them pretty often, and they are not cheap (for a 2nd grader).
Enter the “pog maker”. If you know what a button maker is, then you know what a pog maker is. It is a die cut circle that can punch a disc shape out of any magazine, print out, etc… Combined with adhesive backed pog blanks, I had an unlimted supply of pogs. Even better, I had custom pogs. I could color them with markers, make pogs out of people’s favorite comic heros, anything I wanted. One comic book had about 50 images of Spiderman to use, so it was easy!
I quickly moved from playing pogs, to dealing in pog customization on a gradewide scale.
I think this was my introduction to the marketplace, and to the power of design and being able to design specifically for a customer. My first clients were other 2nd graders who wanted a cooler pog, and they wanted it then and there.
Next up – Magic Tricks