Yoyo, kittens and dawgs! Many of us have come to think of yoyo as a way of saying hello, but in All Things Vintage, I’m sharing a favorite childhood toy of many, the Yo-Yo.
When I was a kid, I played with a yo-yo. I can’t remember if it belonged to me or a sibling or a friend, but I do recall that it was a wooden yo-yo. I always thought this was a toy from the 40s and 50s, but I found out that the yo-yo dates back to 500BC. Are you shocked with this discovery? I was!
The modern yo-yo we know today is a design of Pedro Flores, a Filipino immigrant to the United States. In 1928, he opened Yo-yo manufacturing company in Santa Barbara, California. About a year later, an entrepreneur recognized the potential in Flores product and bought everything. The new owner, Donald F. Duncan. It was 1932 when Yo-Yo became a registered trademark and that same year a gent from London England by the name of Harvey Lowe won the first World Yo-Yo Contest.
Tricks performed with a yoyo always fascinated me; here’s some old footage of Yo-Yo tricks.
Here’s an old commercial promoting Duncan Yo-Yos inside Post cereals. Do you remember getting a prize in your cereal box?
Did you play with a Yo-Yo? Could you do neat tricks? Were you good enough to enter a contest?
Applauds and special thanks to the incredible A2Z Team for hosting all the April fun!
Arlee Bird @ Tossing it Out
Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
Heather M. Gardner
Jeremy @ Hollywood Nuts
AJ Lauer
Pam @ An Unconventional Librarian
Damyanti Biswas @ Daily Write
Zalka Csenge Virág @ The Multicolored Diary
Joy Campbell @ The Character Depot
John Holton @The Sound of One Hand Typing
Now, I invite you to hop with me in checking out some of the amazing A2Zers playing along this year and I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for the last installment of All Things Vintage.
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Just catching up on the last few A to Zs I hadn’t had a chance to read yet. I had no idea the history of yoyos went back that far. I had a Duncan yoyo when I was a kid. I could do the basic up and down with it, but that was it. I always admired those who could do all the fancy tricks.
Oh my word!! I do believe I did get a yo-you in a box of Sugar Crisp!! LOL I think that was the only reason my mom left me have the cereal – because sugar cereal was definitely not the standard. But I never, ever mastered any tricks like these people. I could barely get it to return to me.
Les, I remember getting prizes in cereal, but I’m not sure if I ever got a yo-yo or not. I know I played with one and yet I don’t know if it was mine, a siblings, or a friends. I could get it to return and walk the dog, but that’s about it. Oh the simpler days!
Les, you poor dear, you weren’t privileged to the sugary cereals for breakfast. What is the world coming to? lol Unfortunately I had my share of these growing up and nothing was ever thought about it, either. Of course that was then and this is now. We’re more educated in nutrition and know better. But, that’s so cool that you actually got a yo-yo in a box of cereal. Part of me thinks I remember them being given away and then the other part says, You’re making it up. Who knows?
I had a yo-yo and played with it and even did some tricks like walk the dog and a couple of others but I was never good at it and found the yo-yo a bit boring:)
Birgit, boring! Really? Hmm, annoying at times, yeah, but boring? Nope, not for me. Maybe, my brain is easier entertained is all. lol
I wasn’t good with yoyo’s. I was a bit better with slinkies, and I was darn good with the hula hoop! LOL!
Lexa, I played with the Yo-Yo, Slinky, and the Hula Hoop as a kid. All fun, fun entertainment growing up in the back woods of West Virginia where there is very little to do, except to find inventive ways to have fun. My bestie had a hula hoop and she shared with me. I remember thinking it was hard work. Of course, I was skinny as a sticky with very little muscle power to help me do stuff like this. lol I need to get a hula hoop to use now. It’s really a great form of exercise. Thanks for popping by.
I tried for months, as a teenagers, to master this rotational demon, with no success. Then, one day, it just came to me. I was passable… I have not tried this in years, but thanks to you, my grand kids are about to get the opportunity to try… Thanks!
Myke, I’m not familiar with the rotational demon trick, but it sounds more complicated than walking the dog. Oh boy, you’re going to introduce the yo-yo to your grandkids. It’ll be fun to know how they react to the retro toy. Have fun!
I remember the yo-yo. I was never very good at it. Occasionally I could make it come back up. If I did, then I felt I performed about the only trick I could do.
I do remember getting toys inside cereal boxes. They don’t do that so much any more. But from time to time I find certain cereals will offer something inside. So it’s not completely unheard of.
Jeffrey, it seems everyone is expressing similar words of not being too good with the yo-yo. I’m glad to hear that cereal companies haven’t done away completely of prizes inside their boxes. That was such fun for us kids.
I certainly do remember prizes in cereal boxes. They were a never-ending source of ferocious sibling interaction and parental intervention. 🙂
I was never any good at yo-yoing, but it was fun to try.
Have a blessed day!
Suzanne, it was rare that I got the prize out of the cereal box. My baby brother always beat me to it. lol
That stinks. If it were something that my little sister wanted, it didn’t matter whose turn it was, she’d end up with it. 🙂
We used to have a supply of yo-yos growing up. It was a great day when we could successfully ‘walk the dog’.
Mary
#AtoZChallenge Y is for Yelich-O’Connor
Mary, there weren’t too many yo-yos floating around, but this is something while growing up that I didn’t miss out on.
Hi, Cathy!
I certainly do remember the Duncan Yo-Yo. The Yo-Yo was a wildly popular toy in the decades before I was born and still popular in the 50s when I was a boy, but I never owned one and, when I borrowed one from a friend, I was unable to do the tricks I saw him and people on TV do. As a result I lost interest. I preferred more active endeavors like team sports, anything involving a ball. That black & white TV commercial with the announcer wearing a suit coat and a bow-tie looks like a SNL sketch as do many of the commercials made in the formal Fifties and early Sixties.
Thank you, dear friend Cathy!
Tom, I was surprised to learn how far back the history of the Yo-Yo goes. I knew it was a popular toy during the 40s and 50s. I think I played with one in the late 60s to early 70s, then after than it was a thing of the past until we had children, which we introduced to them and it was a Duncan Yo-Yo. I couldn’t do too much with a yo-yo, either. Getting it to return and walking the dog is about all I could manage, but it seems one of my best friends could do more with his. I guess I wasn’t coordinated or patient enough to stick with it.