Photo Credit: Modish Vintage
I just learned by visiting Wikipedia that the earliest known yo-yo dates to 500 B.C. They were made out of terra cotta back then. And here I thought that the yo-yo was created sometime in the 1940s! However, the modern yo-yo did come out of the WWII era, when a certain Mr. Duncan bought an existing yo-yo company and began production.
The yo-yo experienced a big resurgence in the 1960s after having faded into toy obscurity for several generations. I happen to have been born in the late 60s, and I can assure you that yo-yos were a very big deal back then. I never was able to do much with the ones I had besides the basic yo-yo throw.
Kids today aren’t much different. They are obsessed with yo-yos too. Only the ones currently being manufactured seem to be of really cheap plastic. My kids have been through several yo-yos, being disappointed each time when they find that the string disengages from the base, or the base splits in two and can’t be reassembled.
They just don’t make yo-yos like they used to. Which is why I would snap up a vintage red wooden yo-yo like the one pictured here from Modish Vintage. There’s not much to say about it, except that it’s $10. A small price to pay considering that this yo-yo has already survived the turn of one millenium – the cheap plastic ones barely survive 30 minutes in my house! You can buy this yo-you at Modish Vintage.
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They really don’t make yo-yos like they used to.