The frisbee is a colorful round piece of plastic. Suburban kids try to master spinning it to each other. College students play catch with it to the sounds of the Grateful Dead.
Dogs catch and chew it.
And the versatile mass-produced toy is a powerful cultural icon to every other American. Even the ones who can't make it fly to save their lives. The practice was reputedly popular throughout the 40s, and when the Wham-o toy company came upon the idea in the 1950s, the match was made in heaven. Americans were having more kids, parking them in green-lawned suburban tracts, and buying them anything that was available at the local department store. Frisbees grew and adapted along with their owners in the 60s and 70s.