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[Mark Magyar]

I have a weird Christmas present to report.  In cleaning out some things I found an old box full of odds and ends and it had three finger spinner tops from the 1993 IJA festival in Fargo.  They were made by the Toycrafter!  These are from way before my big time interest in top spinning.  The oddest thing of all is that on the back of one of them there are some scribbles in Japanese/Chinese or whatever.  I can't quite remember the background of this but I'm thinking it is an autograph from one of the top spinners at the festival that year.

Silvertop, do you remember what top spinners were at the festival that year?

From the search that I did:
In 1993 Masahiro Mizuno received the IJA People's Choice Award.
Masahiro happens to do some top spinning as mentioned in Spin Top History by Valerie Oliver. :
http://www.spintastics.com/SSThisttop.html
https://www.ta0.com/history-tops
Excerpt," In August of 1991 at the International Jugglers Festival, a workshop was run by Don Olney of The Toycrafter in New York on spinning peg tops. Many embraced this "new" juggling prop and the workshops grew from year to year with the help of some of the "original" 1960’s top players like Dale and Valerie Oliver. Great new tricks were added by more recent top players, and the newcomers swelled the size of the spin top workshops each year. 1991 also marked the first year that Masahiro Mizuno performed Japanese top tricks at the IJA festival. The magnificent Japanese tops and the tricks done with them by Masahiro played no small part in fueling the growing interest in top."

Here's the championships list of some who were at the 1993 IJA fest.
http://www.juggle.org/history/champs/champs1993.php
I see that my friend David Cain was there also….

and Watts mentioned all of those top spinners that was at the fest in '93. Wow! that's quite a list. If I did get into top spinning in '93 I sure would have liked to have gone to this fest. My interest in top spinning started in 2000. If possible in time I sure would like to meet with the top spinners that were there at the '93 fest. Top Spinning stories from the pioneers....
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I might be getting a late Christmas gift of another Grande Trompo with customized Salvador point.   

[lincolnrick]

I was fortunate enough to be at Fargo also.  I'm sure I went to Dale's workshop.  Man I'm old 

[the Earl of Whirl]

I do not think I knew anything about lincolnrick at the time.  We didn't meet until a number of years later at the Madison fest.

That IJA link to 1993 results brings back lots of memories.  There were a few Houts that did OK in joggling that year.

I remember meeting Mashahiro Mizuno.  I believe he did not understand very much English and communication with him was a little tough for me.  This would explain why I can't read his autograph and why he drew some it........a top spinning on a fan and a kendama.  I am starting to think that the autograph was something my youngest son got from him.

[Watts' Tops]

Rick, I'm sorry I missed you in the list of top spinners at the 93' IJA Jugglers fest.  I might have missed others as well.  I remember that there were 12 of us that went to dinner together.  (Included Don Winters' wife)

[the Earl of Whirl]

I have often heard of the top spinners who came to Fargo for the big IJA fest but I don't think I ever knew there was a dinner of the group.  Do you remember much about the meal?  Could you please tell us any of your memories of that gathering?  Where did you eat?  What were some of the stories shared?

[the Earl of Whirl]

Since we have a new and separate thread on this, I thought we should include the names of the list Walter Watts made..........

I can help a bit from memory.  Top spinners at 93 IJA in Fargo.
  Myself  (Walter Watts)
  Don Winters
  Stan Watson
  Dwight Paulson
  Byron Watts
  Don Olney
  John Gates  and his dad both just learning
  Dale Oliver
There were others but I can't place any more at the time.
 

[Watts' Tops]

Mike,  I'm sorry to say that I have trouble remembering what I ate yesterday.  I really don't remember where or what we ate in Fargo in 1993.  I do remember the comment from Don O. that he was eating with a bunch of preachers. Several had learned from Jim Schreiber at the Oak Hills Christian College.
 Don Olney is the guy to ask what we had for dinner and where. 
Interesting thread.  Thanks.

[silvertop]

Steve Brown was there too and I'm thinking probably Mark Hayward?.  I remember working on a flaming top with Steve and others out in the parking lot after dark!  I still have one!  I have no idea what we ate for dinner!  I do remember making contacts to try and get a bunch of the "preachers" there because many of them were based in the upper mid-west - home base of Jim Schreiber - close enough to fairly easily get to the convention, and I really wanted to meet the ones I didn't know yet!

[the Earl of Whirl]

Well, since so many are having trouble remembering the details of this historic gathering here is what I think happened.  Anyone can add to this story wherever they like.  I think the group argued for many minutes at the Fargo Civic Center about where to eat.  They finally decided to get away from the tent city and to walk a bit to find sustenance.  This meant that they did not eat beans at Boppo's tent, like many other jugglers were doing.  After a three block walk they were happy to gather at Juano's Mexican restaurant as they heard some good reviews about the place from a couple ladder walker guys.   Juano's turned out to be a great place because not only did they have good food but the waiter had trompo experience.  He even got the cook to come out and toss a few.  When several of the crew demonstrated their spinning skills the cook was happy to give everyone larger portions than normal.

There was a long lull in the evening as the preachers argued for a long time about who would say grace before the meal.  Sadly, the food cooled quite a bit before it was consumed.  Dale Oliver was not humored by this.

During the meal a young man by the name of Jon Gates predicted he would win a world championship in top spinning.  Everyone laughed.  He also boldly proclaimed that he would spin incredible things, including beer bottles.  Everyone laughed even more.

Don Olney talked about the fantastic increase in the sale of tops.  Dale Oliver listened closely to all of this and added that he wanted to make some tops including ones with bearing tips.  All chuckled at the thought because they were sure no one would ever want to use bearing tops.  After all, what other tricks could possibly be invented.  All the tricks that could ever be done were already in use.

The evening ended early because all the preachers had morning prayer meetings to attend.  But Don Olney and a few other dare devils had fire in their eyes and went back to the civic center to put that fire in their tops......until the fire marshal came.

[silvertop]

Great narrative Mike!  I must have had more beers than I thought because outside of the fire at the end, I don't remember any of that?  Is there more truth in the Sunday morning stories you tell??? 

[Watts' Tops]

Mike, You remember it better then any of us.  Thanks for refreshing our memories.  Only I don't remember it being Mexican food that evening.
 I do remember that John Gates was a quick learner on the top.  There was no thought of a national championship contest then.  How things change.
  Thanks Mike for the input.

[the Earl of Whirl]

There are some facts in the story.  The weather was very crazy that summer and there was flooding everywhere.  The Mississippi was a mess and the Red River running through Fargo receded just in time so we could have the festival.  The IJA decided to loosen things up a bit because of all of this and people brought tents and set them up in the grass next to the Civic Center where there was open juggling and all the workshops.

I looked around a google map to try to remember eating places and when I saw the Mexican restaurant I decided there was a slight chance the group met there.

Dale Oliver is a little picky about his food (since he was once in food service) so I thought I would throw that in there.

Who could have dreamed of a world championship at that time or a guy spinning beer bottles?  That sounded like some fun facts to include and the ball bearing top was just a twinkle in somebodies eye so why would anyone imagine we would ever need such a thing.  And who could ever imagine that Jon Gates would get as good as he did?

[Zeemo]

  I was also at Fargo and I bought 3 Watts tops that I have and often remind me of the fun we all had with our new toys.  Walter brought in a huge selection and sold quite a few.  Dale Oliver brought some cool t-shirts to sell that had an eagle type design like the old Duncan patches.  I believe that was his first IJA event.  Other "part time top spinning enthusiasts" included Jek Kelly and Patrick Donahoe.  I can't remember if Stu Crump was at this or not.  His publication "Yo-Yo Times" was one of the primary sources for information in those days and really helped in promoting attendance at IJA Festivals.
  As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I took a bunch of tops to the 1987 festival in Akron and there was very little interest in them.  Maybe it was because a guy named Jeff Mason was doing double diabolo that year and he won nationals.  I held a yo-yo workshop in Denver in 1988 and had about 15 - 20 people attend.  After the festival I traveled to Boulder and bought a Hummingbird yo-yo at a shop along the main drag.  I found a subscription form to "Yo-Yo Times" and ordered it.  I wrote to Stu about the workshop and he helped promote a get together in Baltimore in 1989.  The yo-yo workshop was very well attended and I sold Tom Kuhn yo-yo to a lot of beginners.  Things really took off in 1990 at the L. A. Festival where yo-yo legends were a dime a dozen and many of our top spinners were mere neophytes.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1715642982060&set=a.1715642062037.193993.1567778499

[Watts' Tops]

Zemo,  Thanks for the input.  I had thought of you after the fact and sort of remembered that you were at the 93' Fargo IJA fest.  I had forgotten that you had bought three tops.  Did you go along on the dinner out?  Mike wants to know where and what we ate.  Maybe you can remember.

On the side.  My son-in-law and I entered the diabolo accuracy contest and due to the rain and location won first place.  World champion diabolo players.  There were others much better then us but we had been throwing back and forth in a low ceiling gym so had an advantage.  The contest was under an overhang.  We passed back and forth for a perfect score.  Some memories.  Got hats for prizes.  Still have them.

[the Earl of Whirl]

OK Zeemo!  Thanks for bringing some more facts into this picture.  Yes, I remember the talk about the "Watts guy" who had lots of tops.  This was the beginning of our near misses.  I saw his bag full of tops at Fargo and then years later at Davenport but have yet to officially meet him.  I must say, though, I watched some of that diabolo team tossing so I must have seen him at a distance!  Good throwing, by the way, Walter.  There were some amazing diaboloists there and it is very significant that you won that event.  I was so excited about the competitions that I went home and practiced high toss the whole next year and went out to Burlington and got second.

IJA game day is about the most exciting thing I have ever been a part of.  I love all the creativity and excitement and more.  If there is any way we can capture some of that in our top gatherings I think we would be moving in a good direction.

I think I remember some of those Dale Oliver shirts.  I didn't know much about them or who did them, though.  Thanks for that information.

Stan Watson came up to me on game day and gave me a video tape of him doing some tricks on a tv show.  I had it for years but have since lost it.  I still don't know why he picked me out of the crowd to receive one of his tapes.