My brother and I were throwing a plastic throwing disk in the back yard this summer and attempting not to refer to it as a “Frisbee”. The “Frisbee” is a trademarked product of the Wham-O toy company. Our disk was one that the kids got for free with their lunch at Obrien’s pub, and was not an official “Frisbee”.
We were trying to think of other brand names that have become so widely used that we forgot that they were brand names at all. Most of the examples from our youth are no longer applicable. The “Xerox machine” has become the “copier” and a “Kleenex” is now a “tissue”. It was one of those unimportant but pleasing conversations that was interrupted and trailed off, hopefully to be continued another day…..
My kids recently requested that I buy some Popsicles at the grocery store. As I was considering the choices: sugar-free, organic, naturally flavored, artificially flavored….I was delighted to discover that “Popsicle”, the name that I’ve always used to refer to the summer treat generically known as an “Ice Pop”, is one of “those” trademark names. I was even more delighted to learn that Popsicles and Ice Pops are so much more than just frozen fruit juice on a stick. They are “Quiescently Frozen Confections”.
I only hope that I have a suitable platter to serve them upon.
