See what happens when you live under a rock? I had no idea Arthur Melin had passed away.

No one stood so like a mid-century colossus, a modern wonder of the world, spanning the intersection of postwar technology, demographics, the sexual revolution, the generation gap and the cultural revolution, as did Arthur K. “Spud” Melin, who died Friday.

No one so thoroughly grasped the power of color-embedded injection-molded plastic, the baby boom, the rise of suburbia, the revolt against competition, and the appeal of articulated lower-back action as did this man, who helped bring us first the Hula Hoop, and then the Frisbee.

And let us not forget the Slip-n-Slide, the Superball, and the Hacky-sack.