# Toys in the attic
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 8, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757 "2008-11-08T02:07:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@timbicile59](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timbicile59)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/1 "2008-11-08T02:07:16Z")
I looked in wiki and I cant find why this means crazy. Any help?
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/2 "2008-11-08T03:44:36Z")
I’ve never heard this expression. Any examples?
That said, “attic” is slang for the head (the top of a house compared to the top of the body), and toys could be regarded as either something childish, or something that looks right but doesn’t really work. So one with “toys in the attic” might have a childish brain, or a brain that doesn’t work.
---
### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/3 "2008-11-08T03:49:46Z")
Pink Floyd, The Wall:
> [@](#):
>
> Crazy, toys in the attic I am crazy,
> Truly gone fishing
> They must have taken my marbles away
> (Crazy, toys in the attic he’s crazy)
---
### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/4 "2008-11-08T04:02:43Z")
And the obvious (great) Aerosmith song of the same name which you can Google.
And what **Chronos** said.
---
### Author:  [@KnitWit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnitWit)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/5 "2008-11-08T04:57:10Z")
This literature buff may be way off, but what about a potential reference to the crazy woman in the attic in Jane Eyre? I’m certain this isn’t the only time either in literature or maybe in history that a “nut” was locked up in someone’s attic.
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/6 "2008-11-08T12:43:08Z")
Every night at midnight the toys come to life and [act out the story](http://www.chameleontheatre.co.uk/ritual.html) of how their owner grew up and went mad.
First published [1970](http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsG/green-george-macewan.html), and widely performed since.
---
### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/7 "2008-11-08T13:29:43Z")
I think the old practice of locking severely handicapped or crazy people in the attic and never letting them out is a better match. Some people were locked in an attic almost all their life starting at a very young age.
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/8 "2008-11-08T14:02:11Z")
But they aren’t toys, though.
---
### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/9 "2008-11-08T14:05:45Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#):
>
> But they aren’t toys, though.
But the attic was full of toys, especially with mentally handicapped. It was their play area as well as their prison.
---
### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/10 "2008-11-08T14:08:17Z")
An attic is also the topmost chamber of a house, and therefore analogous with the head; the phrase “toys in the attic” has a similar sense as “bats in the belfry.”
One might ordinarily expect to have objects of some utility in the attic - the metaphorical image is that a mentally defective person just has useless stuff rattling around up there.
…and I don’t know how I missed post #2.
---
### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/11 "2008-11-08T14:26:48Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#):
>
> Every night at midnight the toys come to life and [act out the story](http://www.chameleontheatre.co.uk/ritual.html) of how their owner grew up and went mad.
>
> First published [1970](http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsG/green-george-macewan.html), and widely performed since.
If we are looking for a first use of the expression then Lilian Hellman’s 1960 play _Toys in the Attic_ predates this by 10 years.
The theme is more obsession than madness, though.
---
### Author:  [@timbicile59](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timbicile59)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2008, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toys-in-the-attic/471757/12 "2008-11-09T01:04:00Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#):
>
> An attic is also the topmost chamber of a house, and therefore analogous with the head; the phrase “toys in the attic” has a similar sense as “bats in the belfry.”
>
> One might ordinarily expect to have objects of some utility in the attic - the metaphorical image is that a mentally defective person just has useless stuff rattling around up there.
>
> …and I don’t know how I missed post #2.
I knew I cuold count on youse. And i’ve got lotsa useless stuff rattling around