"The yo-yo originated around 1000 BCE in China; that it spread from China to Europe where it went by such names as “quiz” (in England) and “bandalore” (in France); that in the 16th century a yo-yo-like weapon was used in the Philippines; and that it was this weapon that American entrepreneur Donald Duncan adapted to create the toy we all know and love." ~ quoted from Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things

I'm sure something important happened on this day, April 26. Wait just a moment. You didn't ask but I delivered anyway: ~ April 26, 1928 - United States Yo-Yo Factory, Pedro Flores, a Filipino immigrant to the United States, opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California. By November 1929, Flores was operating two additional factories in Los Angeles and Hollywood, which altogether employed 600 workers and produced 300,000 Yo Yo's daily. ~ I did see other more important things that happened on this day in history, however, there was something about the yo-yo story that rang a bell with me. I will add it to the list of why I became the person I am today. At any rate, I can't promise today's edition will be memorable, but, it is being made available to any and all willing to take a few minutes to read it, on this Friday, April 26, 2019. I remember as a kid, I owned several yo-yos at different times. We would occasionally see someone on a TV variety show doing yo-yo tricks. Here is a list of tricks one can learn to do: 1). Gravity Pull 2). Sleeper 3). Forward Pass 4). Around the World 5). Around the Corner 6). Breakaway 7). Rock the Baby 8). Pinwheel 9). Lindy Loop 10). Time Warp 11). Brain Twister. I worked on a few of those, but, other than picking up a few bruises on my own noggin, and, hitting my siblings a few times, I was never really proficient. As I recall, my mom was very proficient at taking the yo-yo away and in keeping her promise to put her own bruises on my bottom.

God knew this cutie would one day be mine!

Here's a flashback from 11 years ago about me taking the wife out for her birthday. I'm not sure what restaurant we visited, but, here's that tidbit, written on April 25, 2008: ~ I carried my wife out to eat on Wednesday evening for dinner to celebrate her birthday. If you read my blog that day you will remember it had a funny story about how older people begin to forget things. Hello? We used to patronize this restaurant fairly often. But, after being served our meal we both immediately remembered that last time we were there we promised never to come there again. But we had not remembered that when I suggested we go to that particular place. Guess what? She had the same place in mind! Is this a great life or what? So the food wasn’t great. The service wasn’t great. But the entertainment was wonderful. No, they didn’t have a floorshow; I’m talking about the people who were sitting on both sides of us. One table had four folks about our age but they were all drinking martinis and we did hear some funny stories from that quartet. They giggled and laughed as they told about a variety of medical issues, treatments, and failed prescriptions. We also heard the details of having to endure a wedding out in Vegas of a daughter who married a long-haired, tattooed ‘all over’ young man. You would have had to be there but it was lively, some of it interesting, and to us, much of it funny. On the other side, there was a couple perhaps a little older than us but the man had a voice that you could hear out on the freeway. When the waitress (if that’s what they call them these days) asked him about his steak he gave her a lecture on the meat you can purchase at the local Kroger. He groused about most everything going on in and around him but he didn’t have to wonder if the manager out near the front door could hear him. Everyone could hear him! My wife wondered out loud how his wife could be anything other than horribly embarrassed. I told her that it most likely was one of those things that came with the package. At any rate, we actually had a wonderful time together, enjoying our conversations, punctuated by some real-life funnies going on around us. ~

It was steak and you could hear the fellow out on the freeway. Using a little deductive reasoning, my guess is that it was the Steak and Ale Restaurant in its declining days. We had patronized that place for things like the boys' birthdays and other celebrations. And, it had been a good place until it wasn't. I know. They all are. The place I mentioned the other day has maintained itself throughout our time of going there. The most consistent thing about Gaidos Restaurant in Galveston has always been the food. Super fresh seafood. Well prepared. Back when we started we could get the same wonderful food for a fraction of what it costs today. I think that's pretty much the way it works with everything. Okay. Enough about food. I do hope you have yourself a most wonderful Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday. I do have some ideas for my blogs coming up next week. I remember. I am supposed to at least jot down the idea. I'll think about thinking about doing that. See you next time, and, may God bless each one. Amen. ...More later.