By Diane Forrest
Have you ever rocked the baby,
walked the dog and gone
around the world in one afternoon? You could have if you know a little bit about
a yo-yo. These are a few of the many
tricks you can do with a yo-yo.
Did you know that the yo-yo is the world's second
oldest toy? Many believe the origins of
the yo-yo were as early as 500 to 1000 B.C.
The picture above shows a young boy playing with one in 400 B.C.
In 1923, Pedro Flores, a man of Filipino descent,
began building yo-yos in America. He built the yo-yos by hand, and discovered
that America's youth were fascinated with them. In 1928, Flores built the first
yo-yo factory, mass-producing the toys in California. He also began to hold
yo-yo competitions to promote the toys, which started the first round of yo-yo
mania in the United States.
Donald F. Duncan Sr. first saw yo-yos in action
around the time Flores began to hold competitions. He noticed how quickly the
toys captured the interest of kids and decided to get into the business of
making yo-yos. In 1930, Duncan bought out Flores, who was then hired to run
Duncan's promotional campaigns. For the
next 25 years Duncan's yo-yos were made of wood, then he partnered with another
company in 1955 to make them from plastic.
Due to the popularity of this toy, this day, National Yo-Yo day is in
honor of Donald Duncan whose birthday was today.
To celebrate yo-yo day, why not find your old one and try to
remember some of the tricks you learned as a kid.
(Images from Google)
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