Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I was passing by a bookstore in Mountain View, Ca when I spotted your book “Yo-Yo Man”. After reading it, I nearly cried with laughter.
You see, I used to a teacher, but to be more accurate, a substitute teacher for the San Francisco Unified School District. What made your story have such a profound effect upon me that moment was that on my first day of substituting, with no formal training, or instruction on how to gain the attention of a grammar school classroom, was my ability to pull a unique skill from my past to quell a rowdy class…my years as a manager and instructor of a Yo-Yo store.
From that moment on, I have been forever labeled as the “Yo-Yo” guy or the “Yo-Yo” sub. My trusty “Turbo Bumble Bee” yo-yo had become my great equalizer. This was especially evident at Paul Revere Elementary School, a public school with children of great potential. I had become a favorite sub among teachers and students alike with my string tricks.
I bought one of your books to give to that school’s 2nd grade, whose teacher i have the upmost respect for and another to keep for myself as a memento of my past. Maybe I should get it autographed?
-Quetzalcoatl Cortes
p.s. I keep in the back of the jacket of the book, a picture that one of the students gave to me on that first day. I felt it fitting to share it with you.
i20.photobucket.com/albums/b213/poolboss/sub%20work/DSCN1736.jpg
You were the manager of a yo-yo store? There is or was such a thing as a yo-yo store? I am trying to imagine it. There are yo-yos, of course, yo-yo books, a re-stringing section. Yo-yo clinics, classes, guest appearances by famous yo-yoists?!? The world keeps getting bigger and weirder, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
