throwing down
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poems about yoyoingTRANSCRIPT
Throwing Down: An Apocryphal History of Yoyoing in America
Kevin Jones
2013
Throwing Down: An Apocryphal History of Yoyoing in America
Throw it down, big man,
Throw it down.
--Bill Walton, on something else, entirely
It’s the late 1020s, and Donald F. Duncan
Sits in a hotel lobby in Santa Barbara.
He’s already been owner of
Good Humor Ice Cream
And a parking meter company.
He’s made fortunes from both.
It’s good to be rich, especially good
To be rich and loved. Rich and hated,
Not so much. He’d like
To be rich and loved again.
*
Pedro Flores, hotel employee,
Walks across the palmed
And marbled floor,
A string in hand,
A wooden disk at
The end of the string.
He pulls; the disk rises.
He flicks his wrist:
The disk flies down the string.
And it comes back.
Duncan is fascinated.
You would be too.
*
Duncan and Flores talk.
It’s a toy from his native
Philippines, Flores explains.
“A yoyo,” he says, “means
‘It comes back.’ Most
Of the time.” Tells Duncan
It’s based on as traditional
Tribal hunting weapon.
The hunter sits in a tree,
Throws down a rock or log
On a string, stuns or dispatches
The potential lunch item. And
If you missed, you wind
The yoyo back and try again.
Or, if you merely stunned
Or pissed off the quarry,
Hope that it doesn’t
Climb trees. You would too.
*
Duncan buys the rights
To the toy—or thinks
He does—on the spot,
Flores thinks otherwise,
Thus giving lawyers for
Both men a half century
Of lucrative work.
Duncan leans back,
Smiles, starts dreaming
Big. Flores smiles,
Returns to his bell station,
Carves disks, twists string.
*
Sometime later, a little further
Up the coast, Duncan pays a visit
To William Randolph Hearst.
Inexplicably, he charms, or bullies
His way past security, past
The butler (Careful, that looks
Like it could be a weapon
In his hand), greets
The Big Man. Hearst
Is charmed by toys and
Games, charades, parlor
Tricks, useless, shiny
Gewgaws (Rosebud!),
Watches transfixed as Duncan
Spins and winds his way
Through his repertoire.
You would too.
*
“And best of all,” Duncan,
Smiling, a little breathless,
Pushes his point home:
“You can use it as a marketing
Tool!” “How?” wonders Hearst,
The fabled good and noble host,
Trying not to grab Duncan’s
Toy and attempt to Walk
The Dog. “Give one to your
Newspaper carriers for, say,
Ten new subscriptions.” “And?”
Hearst wonders, thinking how
He could do Around the World
And not destroy any artwork.
“Have them sell ten more and
You give them instructions
On how to make it work.”
*
Soon, it seems, every
Newsboy in the hemisphere
Is winding up and throwing
Down between newspaper
Tosses. And shortly after,
And well into the 1960s,
Every spring, schoolyards,
Town squares, small town
Radio and television
Stations are flooded with
Duncan Demonstrators—
Roping them in, stringing
Them along with gaudy tricks,
Sharp patter, holding classes,
Organizing tournaments,
Spreading the word,
Throwing it down,
Bringing it back.
*
Everyone of a certain age
Remembers these times,
Those tournaments. Ask
Your parents, your
Grandparents. They’ll
Remember --
How they dazzled them,
Nailed the championship,
Took home that patch
They were good. You
Would be too.
*
It’s the sixties, Duncan
Switches from wood
To plastic, traditionalists
Wring their hands. And
In the courts, Duncan
Repeatedly loses
To Flores and a host
Of other litigants,
Goes bankrupt.
Though much is lost,
Much remains:
Duncan Imperials and
Butterflies, even now,
In every grocery and
Toy store in the land.
And in the spring, that
Primal urge, to throw
It down, watch it
Wind back up.
*
Eight Basic Contest Tricks as
Listed in the 1950 Duncan Manual,
Along with Practical Suggestions on
How, Actually, to do Them
*
The Spinner
The basic yoyo move:
It goes down, it comes back.
If you can’t make this
One work maybe you
Should think about
Another sport. Or
Maybe it’s not a yoyo
At all—brick on a string?
*
Walking the Dog
Yoyo bounces uncertainly
Ahead of you on the floor.
It doesn’t look like a dog,
Nobody’s impressed,
And you don’t want
To try it on a
Cement sidewalk.
*
The Breakaway
A very impressive
Trick until
You miss and hit
And audience member
Behind you square
In the eye. Say
With me now: “I
Meant to do that.”
*
Around the Corner
No corners here—
You loop the string
Over your arm,
And maybe
The thing comes back.
Paint dries.
Grass grows.
*
Over the Falls
A fast, visually impressive
Move. Used to be
Known as Skin the Cat,
But these are politically
Correct times.
*
Three Leaf Clover
Up. Down. Forward.
Very cool move,
Always best done
In profile. Throw in
An Around the World
For a fourth leaf
And you’ll never
Pay for a drink on
St. Patrick’s day.
*
The Creeper
The dog, out for
A walk, has eaten grass.
Move on, move on carefully.
*
Rock the Baby
This is the money trick,
The one everyone remembers,
Everyone wants to see.
Practice this triangle move,
Master it, and you’ll
Never have to work again.
Well, actually, you will.
But you’ll have something
Cool to practice at lunch.
*
Anecdote
Was staying at a hotel
(Wish I could say it was
Santa Barbara) where the
Bellman commented on
My National Yoyo Museum
T-shirt (Yes, there is one,
Chico, CA, where the 250
Pound yoyo sleeps. Because
It wants to). “Used to play
That growing up in the
Phillipines,” he said. Dug
A green Imperial (It is the color
Of Yo, the color of hope, the
Color of eternal return) and
Gave it to him. So would you.
For the rest of the weekend,
Subtly, surreptitiously, he
Practiced his moves
Behind his bell desk.
Pedro Flores and Donald
Duncan alive, and
Back in the building.
Before You Try This at Home
I.
One of the world’s
Leading yoyo designers
Is a dentist.
II.
One of the world’s
Best known
Experts on yoyo
Collecting is also
En emergency room
Physican.
*
A Last Wind Up
There is the sense of wonder,
Of possibility, of hope—
That small disk, the bright string
In your palm, in the moment
Before you throw down,
Knowing that you and
Three feet of string can,
For a time, make magic, defy
Gravity, sculpt the air
Around you, make
The past live again.
It goes down. It comes
Back; history is repeated,
The circle of life closed,
The tale of the eternal
Return told again. That
Small disk, in your hand.
KEVIN JONES lives just outside Sacramento, California, and when not winding and unwinding, teaches at the Sacramento Center of Union Institute & University.