"In the 1830s hoop trundling was seen as an activity so characteristic of the young that it was adopted by a fanatic sect in Kentucky whose members mimicked children's activities in order to gain access to heaven." Wikipedia

“In New York city about 1832, a period of “great awakening ” that begat Mormonism and many other sects  -  among them one in Kentucky, whose members, in order to attain Heaven by making themselves as little children, used to crawl on their hands and knees in church, play marbles, trundle hoops and otherwise manifest their infantile madness  -  one Matthews,^ a carpenter, having assumed the name Matthias, pro- claimed himself to be God, the Father. He found be- lievers, most of them ignorant but some intelligent, procured much money and ruined many persons.”

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Girl with a hoop, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. 1885, oil on canvas. {Larger}