Do you remember ...

"Slinky is a helical spring that stretches and can bounce up and down.
It can perform a number of tricks,
including traveling down a flight of steps end-over-end as it stretches
and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slinky 

In 1943, Richard James, a naval engineer, was working

with tension springs and dropped one.
How it moved after it hit the ground,
gave James an idea for a new toy.

Christmas, 1945, Slinky debuted at Gimbel’s Department Store
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/slinky.htm 

Although I knew about them, I never had a Slinky.

I never wanted a Slinky.  
 It seemed like a cool thing, I just couldn’t decide what to do with it.