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[jim in paris]

hi all

something happened yesterday at the new squatt
the ground floor space where there is my workshop , is now open to the public in the afternoon
it was  7pm ...i was showing yoyos and tops to the visitors
when this guy "Omar" who had been hanging around for some time suddenly shouted
a long sentence in arabic language ;; with a big smile... and he explained that this yoyo suddenly reminded him a toy he used to make and play in "the casbah" in Algiers in the seventies .......//and he described what we know as a "buzzer" (p 256 in LOURENS book)
in do time did I flatten a beer cap, punched 2 holes, and put a yoyo string
the guy Omar was without overstatement DE-Lighted
he kept playing and showing people the buzzer in action
later he told me he had never had this sort of flashback into his chilhood
since he came to france over 30 years ago
i replied that i was so glad to hear his memories which confirm the role of very simple skill toys in popular culture


jim

[Dick Stohr]

What a great story! I bet you enjoyed his excitement as much as he did.

[silvertop]

Great story ..... too bad we don't all know each other's stories, and realize we are all the same!

[Jack]

thats a very "real" occurance, i enjoyed that, thank you for writing that here jim

[jim in paris]

short vid on the spot

 


jim

[Larry D.]

Jim,

The video is coming up with "This Video is Private". 

[jim in paris]

problem fixed

thanx

jim

[the Earl of Whirl]

Yes, I remember being pretty young (8-10 years old) and sitting in the shade outside my grandmother's house.  My dad was long long gone (who knows where) and we lived with my grandma and had very little.  But she had a bunch of old buttons and showed us how we could take the biggest ones and run a string through it to make this toy.  I don't remember if "buzzer" was the name we had for it or not, but it is exactly the same thing we used to play with for hours.  It kept our hands busy and out of trouble for at least a little while and my grandma was thankful for that!

Thanks for the memories.

[czyoyo]

Yeah! I used to play with these allot.
We made them about ten years ago in school when we learned about pioneers.
Apparently they have been a popular toy for a long time!

Some other names I found are "Buzzsaw" and "Whirligig"
Another popular name seems to be "button on a string"