Sometime in the early Seventies, gender-free toys were briefly a popular idea. So at Christmas on the California beach in 1972, we downplayed the dolls with frilly dresses and loaded up Santa's sack with toy trucks and earth movers for our three daughters.

When I was 7 I came up with the idea of 'charm socks.' My mom would take me to buy bags of plastic charms we would sew them on frilly white socks and I sold them at school.