Did you know (ok.. I didn’t and so I’m sharing this now…) that the Jolly Jumper - Fixture of Child Rearing for the last 50 years, is a CANADIAN invention?
(This text stolen happily from http://www.jollyjumper.com/History.aspx )
“Susan Olivia (Davis) Poole, a.k.a. Olivia was born in 1889 and died in 1975. She was part Ojibway and a very talented pianist who studied music at Brandon College in Manitoba, Canada where she met her husband, Delbert Poole, who was studying for the ministry.
As a child Olivia watched her elders strap their babies to cradle boards to carry them as ‘papooses’. While working in the fields, a mother would often hang the papoose on a sturdy tree limb and soothe the baby by occasionally pulling on the limb to cause a bouncing motion.
Olivia remembered this in 1910 when her first child, Joseph, was born in Ontario, Canada. She made him a swing and called it a Jolly Jumper. She made the harness or saddle from a cloth diaper and a blacksmith created a soft-action steel spring. An axe handle was used for the spreader bar.
In 1942 Olivia and her husband moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. When grandchildren arrived, she continued to make Jolly Jumpers as she had for all of her seven children and by 1948 Jolly Jumpers were ready for mass production.
Olivia Poole and her son, Joseph Poole patented Susan’s invention in 1957 and manufactured ‘Jolly Jumpers’ at Poole Manufacturing Co. LTD. in British Columbia, Canada.“
Well what do you know…
Very nice… high five!
He used to hang ours on the top basement step in our townhouse in Calgary. Laura used to love swinging and jumping over the steps and coming back to the top landing.
Try and get away with that today buddy. =)
Interesting piece of trivia! The little guy in the photo sure enjoys bouncing around in his just like his Dad did over three decades ago.
Haha that rocks!
Very cool bit of trivia. I think the jolly jumper we have was made in 1957