In the late fifties, when I was about ten, every spring yoyo men showed up in our schoolyard. I can't say why this was allowed. The men demonstrated various tricks during recess, and like the automatons we were, we went out and bought Duncan yoyos after school, never managing to do more than make the thing go up and down. Another slinky or hula hoop in the hall closet. Rocking the baby, give me a break.
Now did the schools believe yoyos were a worthwhile way to spend our time. Did they seem them as a skill? Or were they in kahoots with Duncan? I'm not sure but today at a toy store I saw rows of them, glittering now, in fabulous colors and beckoning to me like they did fifty years ago. It doesn't take a yoyo man to make a sucker. What say you on yoyo men?
18 comments:
How odd and interesting, these yoyo men. Sounds like the school just thought it would be a welcome diversion, or maybe there was a kickback of some sort :-)
Yoyos were huge when I grew up in the 80s.
The secret was in getting your yoyo to "sleep" as long as possible. This required waxing the string, the inside sides and the hub. This made walking-the-dog and around-the-world more than once possible.
And yes, the yoyo men where allowed on the grade school playgrounds with their fancy yoyo tricks and as I recall, no one complained or even thought it was inappropriate. But like marbles, yoyos were a lot of fun and at my grade school were a form of currency.
Fun if you were good at it. My specialty was the hulu hoop.
Did anyone make a living hawking yoyos? I guess so.
I grew up in the 1950s and never had YoYo (we always spelled it yo-yo) men demonstrating them, but they were the thing to have every Spring. Seems we got mine at the Five & Dime and they may even have had them at the hardware store. I got good enough to have the yo-yo "sleep" and could do "walk the dog" and "around the world" but never the "rock the baby" thing. I do remember the commercials on TV, and they certainly made all those tricks look easy in them.
Chuck is right about "sleep" being the key, but for me it was a matter of changing the string and keeping it slightly loose on the spindle.
Oh and yep, we had, took to school, played and won and lost marbles. I was never worth a damn at the Hula Hoop.
I remember a yo yo fad going around, but not yo yo men coming to give demonstrations.
No boys were good at hula hoops, Rick.
Maybe California and LA was more sensible about allowing men entry to school yards.
I never saw a yoyo guy at any of my schools. No matter, every summer we bought our yoyos at Woolworth's. The ten center I first got was useless for tricks, but a decent 25-cent sleeper worked fine. I was good for half-a-dozen tricks or so.
"No boys were good at hula hoops, Rick."
--A few were, when I was a kid.
"Maybe California and LA was more sensible about allowing men entry to school yards."
--Strange men, you mean...not that the Mary Kay Letourneaus were filtered out too well thus.
Btw, almost certainly getting a few bucks, the school administrators in cahoots with the Duncan demonstrators, indeed.
I could make a decent Duncan sleep, and Walk the Dog when I was lucky, but I was more a kite boy.
No love for the Simpsons episode where Springfield Elementary becomes yo-yo crazy after watching an assembly of hip young yo-yo players? I suppose the writers of that episode remembered the yo-yo men.
When I was young, marbles would become incredibly popular during certain times of the year. Also (for girls) jump ropes. Now all the kids want to do at recess is surreptitiously text each other.
Still popular: http://www.thenedshow.com/about.asp
My oldest son was in first grade last year and yo-yos were big after a demo by a Ned guy.
The playground had a "Ned-Zone" for yo-yo only activities. They sold a variety of yo-yos from cheaper to high-priced. Of course Boy #1 wanted to get the fanciest one.
The lure of those fancy ones from that aisle in the toy store was powerful but then I remembered I never mastered a single trick other than the basic motion. I could do more with me feet than hands.
So now we lure them online. Maybe that's better.
Nah, Letourneau and her peers of all physical descriptions are still good for the face-to-face, hands-on approach. I suspect the online solicitations that lead to anything dangerous remain dwarfed by the abuses of those who are rather too drawn to the professions and situations where they are responsible for children, and then choose to be irresponsible (to put it very kindly). (What do you say, Woody? Roman?)
Or did you mean the toy demonstrations were luring us (or kids) to toys online?
There was also a guy who came down my block with a merry go round on the back of a truck. The fifties were strange times.
And remember everyone allowed men hawking various items (like brushes) in their house. We were innocents then.
As a Fuller Brush Man for eight days, I can tell you that damn few people invited me it.
Today's yo-yos are much easier to do tricks with. Seriously. They've got little gears. Patti, you should go out immediately and buy yourself an up-to-date yo-yo and show those yo-yo men whose boss now!
Gears. Well, that's amazing.
Post a Comment