Fast forward. Wild Bill and the gang came to visit last week. When he arrived, I gave Bill a sample pack of various strings (labelled) and a Zipline wooden pick (sorry no pictures). I chose this gift since in past, he saw humor of the many string names - of the mindset - “it is just string”.
The group got caught up in acting like geriatric college kids and we didn’t get around to talking yo-yos.
I set the bait, leaving a single yo-yo out on the coffee table. If he played with it, it was his. What do you think happened?
When I was buying my car Saturday, one of the customer experience people asked me in the way out of she was right that she saw me yo-yoing, I told her YEA!! And she was very pumped, telling me about how she was way into it as a kid. I told her after this I was headed to club, but she works every Saturday all day, so I don’t think I’ll see her anytime soon
I run a club and give away like a handful of YoYo’s a month. Shifting to 3d printing stuff. This year my club has started to do scout group workshops, library workshops and elementary school demos
Also I’ve given a yoyo to every friend/coworker/ family member that would take one
Cinci yoyo club recently had a meetup at a “general hobby meetup” hosted at a tattoo parlor. i ended up handing out like 5 yoyos to the various other hobbiests present!
In 2020 my neighbor (guy around 25) asked to see some of my yoyo because his mother had seen me with a yoyo. I taught him to bind and he learned everything I knew in two weeks and flew by me skill-wise in a matter of two months. He had IT and he grasped complex things effortlessly (unlike me). He moved away in 2023 and we text once in awhile and he says he throws once in a while to see if he still remembers tricks.
I had a young man stop by from a company that was spraying properties in the neighborhood for stink bugs and while we were talking he noticed the yo-yos and said he had been watching some videos lately. I handed him a Mike Monty Mori that I’d won during one of the Boomers Club events last year, taught him to bind, and after seeing the near explosion of joy after his fist bind… I told him it was his. It is so amazing to be able to put that level of joy into another person with such a simple act of kindness.
I have just found such amazement and such comfort in witnessing the selfless reciprocity in this community, as well as its ripple into the communities that surround us all. It comforts me to know I’m among friends who prove their genuine nature time and again. Thanks.
Back in 2022, I distributed Duncan XTs as Halloween treats to neighborhood kids.
Can’t say I created a juvie Yo-Yo gang, but even as most are now teenagers/young adults, I still hear calls of “Hi! Mr. Bill”. Even from the ones that moved away.
Wild Bill spotted the Yo-Yo asked if he could use it.
He threw it for a few minutes (the basics). I told him he could have it. He appreciated my offer, but politely declined and put it back on the table. We left it at that.
I don’t think he touched it for rest of weekend, but earlier he had gladly accepted the string sampler pack.
He’s my age. I can only assume like back in our ol’ yo-yo days ( early 70s), all he needed was one yo-yo to be satisfied. “Joy is the fruit of appreciation.” - Bill F
Randomly remembered another one: at Rhinegeist again and a manager for a Senior living community came up and asked us if we would yoyo for their seniors on National Yoyo Day. We, of course, said yeah, and a couple weeks later i was putitng on a show with the other Cincy crew members in their atrium, and the senior center had bought like 2 dozen yoyos for the seniors. It was one of the coolest things we had done and i hope the seniors still throwing!
