Some of you will remember being in elementary school during the 90s.  Of those people, most will remember an assembly during the year, and possibly each year, where a yoyo guy or troop came through and performed for the school.  After each of these assemblies, they would have a few models of yoyos on sale for us kids.  I remember seeing the “smart” yoyos for the first time and being green with envy of the kids who got them.  Times were tough back then for my family and I knew it.  So I never asked to get one and thus never did.  Then at one point my parents got me a very cheap soccer ball yoyo.  It was terrible but at least it was a yoyo.  I remember playing it for HOURS.  Never could get it to sleep, but the up and down motion was enough.

Fast forward roughly 27 years.  I’m now married with two kids and my own home.  My parents couldn’t wait to start dropping off my childhood things at my house after we purchased it.  The boxes sat in the garage for a year or so and one night I started going through them with my wife.  In one of the boxes was the soccer ball yoyo!!  I put the string around my finger and threw it down.  What a familiar feeling, though it seemed so much smaller than I remembered it.  After about 5 minutes we continued through the other stuff.  About 15 minutes into that it occurred to me that I could buy my own yoyos now!

The rest, as they say, is history.