In early September, for many years, Miamisburg has had an event in our downtown for local artists. People bring tents and set up their own booths and hang out for the entire day. There are creative items everywhere. This year, though, they brought in two men from Columbus (the capital of our state and about an hour and a half away) who were from a wood turning club. I had heard earlier in the week that they turned tops so I tried to make some time to talk with them.
As it turned out, they were not really that into top turning. And the tops they did turn were simple finger spinners. But they were nice men and very easy to talk to. After chatting with them in the morning I came back in the late afternoon with some of Don Olney's old Toycrafter peg tops. The one guy seemed quite interested at that point and even learned how to wind and throw. I had to leave but I left him a care package of one of Don's tops, a couple of extra tips and a couple of extra strings and buttons. He was already trying to turn a peg top when I left so I had some hopes that he might continue on.
There were a few things he talked about that caught my attention. He showed me their card and the secretary for their club was a familiar name. I asked if he was a pastor and he said "yep, a retired pastor". It is an old friend from years ago. Maybe I can establish another wood turner connection?
He also said it was no big deal to get a demonstrator out to Miamisburg again. They have a large club. We will see if we can get him or someone from his club back with us for our top fest or for another time.
He also said that the Ohio State Fair (one of the largest in the world) was talking to him about having an event (with wood) that was more kid friendly and they were talking to him about tops. Maybe even wooden yoyos, he said, but they seemed more interested in tops. We will see if anything can comes of that but it gives me something to work on.
