The Yo-yo Craze. Another toy you never see anymore is the yo-yo. Back in my youth, every boy carried a yo-yo. It was the ultimate toy. It was something you could do by yourself or have a friendly two man competition with one of your friends. Tricks such as walk-the-dog, rock the cradle, around the world or loop-the-loop were standards in the yo-yo world.
Broken strings were commonplace but it only cost ten cents to get a new one – if you didn’t do serious damage to your yo-yo when it broke. A standard piece of equipment for every boy was a band-aid around his yo-yo finger to keep the string from cutting into his finger. Boys wore their band-aid like a badge, showing everyone that he was an aficionado of the art of the yo-yo.
The old Wicomico Theater on South Division Street near the river used to bring in professionals for shows for the children. They were usually Phillipino and were far superior to what we thought was above average. Every time the show would come to town, it generated a flurry of yo-yo activity in the local youth.
When WBOC first started on the air in 1954, they had a yo-yo competition at the station that aired live on television. Now, 48 years later, the winner of that competition told me the true story. The winner was Alan Davis of Subside Deli and he was decidedly coming in second when the lead competitor’s string broke while they were in fierce competition over who could do the most loop-the-loops. He still has the trophy he won after all these years. There are never any more treasured mementos from our past than a visible reminder of a much simpler way of life when just winning a yo-yo competition could keep you riding on a cloud for weeks. The adulation of your peers could never be topped by any achievement in school. Now, they would give everybody in the tournament a “participation” trophy and everyone thought they had done something. Children today don’t know the joy of winning. It just meant if you didn’t win, you practiced until you got better, sometimes achieving the thrill of getting that winning trophy.
We girls had yo yos too and we could beat some of the boys. LOL The slinky was another fun toy when we were children.
ReplyDeletei always had a yoyo. everyone carried it along in junior high and played with them between classes, and tricks before and after school. wouldn't happen today. surely teachers would confiscate them.
ReplyDeletewasn't the "butterfly" yoyo a real popular item. seems to me it was best for tricks.
What a great post on SBY history and childhood memories.
ReplyDeleteThe elite here will pooh-pooh such memories, saying you can't go backwards.
But they have to spend big bucks on their booze, expensive clothes, electronic gadgets and grown up toys, and I will bet you they don't experience half the joy that came from a simple yo-yo as described here. They'll just poor more money into their empty void.
A male contestant on America's Got Talent last year was a yoyo expert.As great as he was I knew he would'nt go very far in the competition.If the entire viewing audience was over 50 he would have won the competition hands down.Even Ed Sullivan used to have yoyo experts perform on his show.
ReplyDeleteThey still make yo-yos but not like they used to.
ReplyDelete