Yo-Yo And Byron's First Birthday

Dear Byron,

Only a couple days now and you'll be ONE YEAR old! Wow! Where did the year go?

I've been pondering what I might get you for your birthday. This may sound crazy, but I actually thought about getting you a very, very old toy that has nothing to do with modern day electronic gadgets. I'm talking about a yo-yo! I had lots of yo-yos when I was a kid.

The Yo-Yo came to the USA only a couple years before I was born. There's even a National Yo-Yo Museum in the northern California town of Chico. They have the world's biggest collection of yo-yos from around the world. Here's a picture from their website of the "Big-Yo", the 1982 Guinness Book of World's Records largest working wood yo-yo, weighing 256 lbs.

Scaled-up Replica of the 3-in-1 No-Jive yo-yo by Tom Kuhn

The yo-yo as a toy (known as a bandalore) had been used for centuries. It may be the second oldest toy in the world (after dolls). There are ancient Greek yo-yos made of terra cotta in museums in Athens and yo-yos are pictured on the walls of Egyptian temples. The yo-yo was popular with such important warriors as Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. It was first patented in 1866 by James L. Haven and Charles Hettrich. The word yo-yo is actually a Tagalog word, the native language of the Philippines, and means 'come back.'

Pedro Flores was the single, most important person to introduce the word 'yo-yo' to the United States. Flores was a native of Vintarilocos Norte, Philippines. He came to the United State in 1915. He attended the High School of Commerce in San Francisco 1919-1920. Then he took up the study of Law at the University of California - Berkeley and the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. 

He later dropped out of school, had a variety of jobs and developed his vision for the yo-yo's potential when he read about a man selling a ball attached to a rubber band, who made a million dollars. He remembered the game yo-yo which was played for hundreds of years in the Philippines and he thought it had a good market possibility in the U.S. Mr. Flores was quoted saying, "I do not expect to make a million dollars; I just want to be working for myself. I have been working for other people for practically all my life and I don't like it." 

In early 1928 Flores went to Los Angeles and asked a wealthy Philippine for assistance in manufacturing yo-yos. His friends thought him crazy and he returned to Santa Barbara with only his dream. Being a true entrepreneur, at the age of 29, on June 9th, 1928, he applied and received a certificate of conducting business for the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara. On June 23, 1928, he made a dozen yo-yos by hand and began selling them to neighborhood children. 

From those humble beginnings, the yo-yo went on to became a national craze, with contests everywhere. Flores later sold his interest in his yo-yo manufacturing companies for more that
$250,000, an absolute fortune in the days when I was a little kid.

Donald F. Duncan was the guy who bought out Flores' companies and the name yo-yo. He introduced the looped slip-string, which allows the yo-yo to sleep—a necessity for advanced tricks. During the 1950s, Duncan introduced the first plastic yo-yos and the Butterfly® shaped yo-yo, which is much easier to land on the string for complex tricks.

Maybe in a few years I'll really get you a yo-yo and you can enter yo-yo competitions. Who knows? You might even become national yo-yo champion. 

Well, just a thought. Maybe for now we'll get you a toy easier to play with. In any event, we're all giving thanks for this first wonderful year. 

God bless and keep you, dear Great-Grandson! 

Love ya, 

GGPa