Thread by @rezahakbari

A fun #Friday thread for Iranian millennials, those interested in childhood games, & street soccer. This is a plastic ball or "toop pelastiki." The object is a source of great joy for kids growing up in #Iran during the 1980s. 1/10

These plastic balls were cheap and ubiquitously available at almost all convenience stores across the country. The kids could easily buy them with their pocket money and set up small games of street soccer, which provided them with countless hours of entertainment. 2/10 #Iran

The balls were, however, low quality and light in weight. So, kicking them a bit too hard would result in them flying all over the place. They could not withstand the hazards of street life either. The smallest prick would ruin them. They'd go flat right away. 3/10 #Iran

Necessity is the mother of invention, of course! So the kids worked around this issue by buying two balls. One would be sacrificed and used as a layer of protection. These makeshift balls would be called "toop do-layeh," which literally means a two-layered ball. 4/10 #Iran

This may look simple, but it was pretty tricky. Making too big of an incision would ruin the layer, because the ball would fall out. Gap couldn't be too big since it was meant to protect the other ball. Too small of an incision would not allow you to squeeze the ball in. 5/10

Knowing how to layer a ball was a much respected skill among the kids. It'd buy you lots of credit. It was risky business after all! Your peers were counting on you to provide them with the game ball. So, ruining it would put you in the doghouse for a while. 6/10 #Iran

Countless hours of fun ensued. Kids would set up small goals in the street, often by simply laying down rocks as goal markers. Teams would form, rivalries developed, & some neighborhoods even had tournaments. Some kids became legends of gol koochik or street soccer. 7/10 #Iran

The background noise was often moms yelling out of windows asking kids to watch for cars. That's how dreams of becoming professional soccer players started. This is Ali Gholizadeh when he was five years old. He now plays as a forward for @TeamMelliIran & @SportCharleroi. 8/10

And here is Alireza Mansourian, a @TeamMelliIran legend who played for #Iran's renowned squad at the 1998 FIFA World Cup being challenged by a TV program to "layer the plastic ball." They want to see if he still remembers how to do it! 9/10

It's hard for these plastic balls to continue competing with today's computer games and consoles, but they have certainly managed to carve a permanent spot in the heart and minds of a few generation of Iranians. 10/10 #Iran