Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Did You Know Tuesday: Fun Facts About the Yo-Yo

When I was a little girl I loved little simple dimestore toys like yo-yos.  During my childhood years, yo-yos were usually manufactured by Duncan.  They often appeared as small birthday gifts from neighborhood friends, or as a party game prize.  My favorite was the glow in the dark yo-yo, like the one pictured here.

June 6 is National Yo-Yo Day.  Who knew?!   I didn't, but that is a fun holiday.

In honor of National Yo-Yo Day falling this week, here are a few fun facts:

In 1928, Pedro Flores, a businessman who immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines, started the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California.  In 1929 this company was purchased by Donald Duncan.  In 1946 the Duncan Toys Company opened their first yo-yo factory in Luck, Wisconsin.  

In the 1950's Duncan created a light-up yo-yo.

In 1962 Duncan Toys started a new ad campaign for yo-yos and the toys became very popular.  Here is one of the ads, which included a Duncan yo-yo bundled with Lifesavers and Fruit Stripe gum:



There is a World Yo-Yo Contest held annually in Orlando, Florida.  Contestants do compulsory tricks and also perform freestyle with a yo-yo.

Duncan yo-yos are still made and come in many different models, like the Imperial, the Butterfly (I remember this from childhood), the BumbleBee, the Dragonfly, and more.




Some of the different yo-yos are better for tricks than others.  Popular yo-yo tricks include Walk the Dog, Around the Corner, and The Sleeper.

In 1968, Abbie Hoffman "walked the dog" with a yo-yo while testifying before a Congressional committee.  He was found in contempt.

Richard Nixon played with a yo-yo at the Grand Ole Opry shortly before leaving office in 1974.  Roy Acuff taught him to play with the yo-yo onstage.

A yo-yo traveled on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985.

How about you?  Did you play with yo-yos as a child?  Can you do any yo-yo tricks?   I'd love to hear your memories in the comments, below.

Book Spotlight and Giveaway - Sunshine Beach by Wendy Wax

Book Synopsis

From the USA Today bestselling author of The House on Mermaid Point, a story of three women who join forces to bring a historic seaside hotel back to life.

There’s nothing that a fresh coat of paint and a few glasses of wine can’t fix  .  .  .

After losing their life savings in a Ponzi scheme, Maddie, Avery and Nikki have banded together to make the most of what they have left, using their determination, guts, and a large dose of elbow grease. It’s Maddie’s daughter Kyra who stumbles across a once glorious beachfront hotel that has fallen into disrepair. The opportunity to renovate this seaside jewel is too good to pass up---especially when they come up with the idea of shooting their own independent television show about the restoration.  What could possibly go wrong?

Everything. With the cameras rolling, Maddie’s second-chance romance with her all-too-famous new boyfriend gets complicated, Nikki’s reluctance to commit to the man who lovers her could leave her to face the biggest challenge of her life and the paparazzi continue to haunt their every move. Even the hotel seems to be against them, when their renovation uncovers a decades-old unsolved murder that just might bring their lives tumbling down all over again.


Author Bio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says bestselling author Wendy Wax “writes with breezy wit and keen insight into family relations.” Her contemporary women’s fiction has been compared to that of Jennifer Weiner and Karen Joy Fowle and her books, including her Ten Beach Road novels, Ten Beach Road, Ocean Beach, and The House on Mermaid Point, A Week at the Lake, While We Were Watching Downton Abbey and others, have been featured in national media such as USA Today, Ladies’ Home Journal, CNN Online and Woman’s World.

When Ten Beach Road was published in 2011, Wendy had no intention of moving her protagonists beyond the beachfront mansion they renovated in St. Pete Beach, Florida, where the author was born and raised.  However, Wax found her own enthusiasm for her disparate characters matched by that of readers and reviewers, so when a new Ten Beach Road story began to take shape, she couldn’t resist putting aside her work-in-progress to spend more time with her intrepid DIYers.

The author of thirteen novels, Wendy currently splits her time between Atlanta, where she has lived for almost twenty years, and New York City. When not writing, she visits with readers at bookstores and book events, reads, enjoys her and her husband’s newly empty nest and catches up with her sons on the serendipitous occasions when everyone ends up in the same place at the same time.

Giveaway
One lucky reader will win a copy of Sunshine Beach.  Open to U.S. and Canada.  Giveaway ends Monday, 6/13/16.  Winner will be notified by email, and will need to respond within 48 hours.  The book will be sent by the author or her publicist.

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