OurWrightSide Weblog

Remember the “Laugh Box” of the 1960s?

1960s Laugh Bag

In the late 1960s or very early 1970s, Sara and Dave drove with their children to spend Christmas in Memphis.  They usually made the yearly trip to Tennessee during the holiday season.

Their youngest daughter, Cheryl had acquired a “Laughing Box.”   (The above Laugh Bag was a very similar novelty. )  It might have been a Christmas present.   It was just a simple square box with a big red button on the top.  When you pushed the button, a man started laughing.  A good belly laughing!  And he laughed, and laughed and laughed.

Laughing, as they say, is contagious.  Every one who heard it was reduced to tears, as they laughed along with the box and everyone else.  It would spark laughter wherever it went.

One person in particular who loved the Laugh Box was Nathan.  The box fascinated him!  It gave him the giggles.  He pushed the button over and over, laughing along with the box each time he played it.  He enjoyed laughing!

His granddaughter couldn’t bear to take it from him when the day came to return home.  She wanted her Papaw to keep the box because he enjoyed it so much and it “made him so happy!”

It’s easy to picture him now… pushing that button and belly laughing with the guy in the box!  And what a great laugh he had!

Nathan, with granddaughter, Cheryl (June, 1959)