Many moons ago, I was in fourth grade. Fourth grade, along with the other elementary years, were extremely memorable and some of the best years I ever had. I know that sounds pretty lame considering I went to three different colleges. However, there was only one reason for why my elementary years were so fun and memorable. That was because of school assemblies.
The excitement leading to the assembly was almost unbearable. Nobody knew what it was going to be about, but the regular schedule was always interrupted. We had our lunch hour at a different time, we had recess earlier, our classroom time was cut to a fraction, and the teachers were a little excited as well. I’m sure my poor teacher would take us to see a killing of a unicorn if it meant getting 15 minutes of silence.
It was time.
The school poured into the gymnasium. It was a different seating arrangement than what I’m used to seeing. First graders would get front row seating and the rest of the rows were filled by seniority according to youngest students. Therefore, by grade.
A guy in a dapper, business casual outfit walks out. He has a yo-yo in his hand. He begins to make the yo-yo his bitch and does all sorts of tricks, flips, and throws with the yo-yo. Of course, the dude was a professional salesman trying to sell his yo-yo’s to us kids. We were practically jerking off to the idea of having our own yo-yo and doing amazing tricks as well.
The day after, one of his assistants was selling similar yo-yos’ to the one the cool salesman had. I gave him 20$. This was the opposite of the tooth fairy. FORESHADOWING!
A few weeks went by and I finally managed to “walk the dog” with my new yo-yo. My dad worked at the airport at the time and I had to wait there for my dad to get off, then take us home.
I finally saw him! My excitement levels were through the roof because I was finally able to show my dad my cool trick I learned.
I showed him and he saw.
My dad is a unique guy as well. It’s hard to explain and describe the guy without sounding coarse and almost unkind. But that’s not the case. I love that guy.
My dad being a dad, decided it was a good idea to borrow the yo-yo and impress his young son with a few tricks of his own.
He started with a routine warm-up. He walked the dog. Yet, I was impressed and shocked that he stole my trick, but nonetheless.
As I was observing him “walking the dog” I looked down at the y0-yo, trying to look at the mechanisms and the furious spinning the yo-yo was doing. At that moment, my dad lost control.
He accidentally pulled the yo-yo up, hitting me in the face, and knocking one of my teeth out.
Keep in mind that that this was still in the airport. People witnessed my tooth flying out. For whatever reason, we spent the next half hour looking for my tiny tooth, but we found it!
It was the last time I played with that yo-yo.
Young Man Daily 