The Community Paper

The Way We Were: Child’s play and ‘Kid Stuff’ — Attempt to set yo-yo record in Heritage Square Park



A crowd gathers outside the Orange County Regional History Center for the Guinness World Record Breaking Yo-Yo Event in January 2008. (COURTESY OF ORANGE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER)

Under cloudy skies on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008, an exuberant crowd gathered in Heritage Square Park in downtown Orlando with one goal in mind: breaking the world record for the most people yo-yoing in one place at one time for two minutes.

At the time, the Guinness World Record to beat stood at 432 people but with a yet-to-be-authenticated record of 1,496 people set in Maryland in 2007. The American Yo-Yo Association record was 631 people. The Orlando event was held to help promote the Orange County Regional History Center’s latest exhibition, “Kid Stuff: Great Toys from Our Childhood,” as well as to engage the local community in a day of unorthodox fun.

The museum exhibition — crafted by the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts — aimed to educate, instill feelings of nostalgia and show children a variety of toys and games from the past. In light of an increasing reliance on games created by video game designers, the exhibition also hoped to promote children’s imaginations while letting them come up with their own games.

The Kid Stuff exhibit included numerous interactive displays where adults could play with toys from their childhood while allowing children to experience that same joy. Some of the toys available to play with included the Hula-Hoop, Etch A Sketch, Slinky, Twister, and the Magic 8 Ball.

Promotional yo-yos were given away at the Orange County Regional History Center for the Guinness World Record Breaking Yo-Yo Event in January 2008. (COURTESY OF ORANGE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER)

The yo-yo event in the park tied into the whimsical elements of the exhibit. Inspiration for the Guinness World Record attempt also came courtesy of the “The Shakamak yo-yo,” a 6-foot-tall, 820-pound yo-yo placed just inside the entrance to the History Center. The yo-yo itself — built in 1990 by a woodworking class at Shakamak High School in Jasonville, Indiana — held the Guinness World Record for the largest yo-yo ever created. “The Shakamak yo-yo” was owned by Orlando resident and yo-yo enthusiast Dr. John “Lucky” Meisenheimer.

Nearly 1,700 people — including college students bused in from UCF, children of all ages and even participants from downtown’s unhoused population — gathered in Heritage Square Park with their complimentary Duncan yo-yos. At 3:00 p.m., they attempted to set a new record.

It can take over a year for Guinness to verify a record, however, especially when they need to review video and count participants.

Unfortunately, in 2010 the Yomega Corporation and Boys’ Life Magazine beat the existing record with 2,036 participants at the National Scout Jamboree in Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia. That record was challenged as recently as 2019 at the World Yo-Yo Contest in Cleveland, Ohio, but — at least for now — the 2010 record remains intact.

Even the “Shakamak yo-yo” record toppled when the once-largest yo-yo was bested in 2012 by Beth Johnson of Cincinnati, Ohio, who claimed an 11-foot-tall, 10.75-inch-diameter yo-yo.

Have no fear, however, as the record for the world’s largest yo-yo collection still remains in local hands, held by Meisenheimer, the owner of over 10,000 different yo-yos as of 2018. (And there’s a footnote to his story: In 1979, Meisenheimer also made it into the “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” syndicated cartoon strip for swimming half a mile with his foot in his mouth.)

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Aaron Pahl is the Digital Archivist for the Orange County Regional History Center.

For more Orlando history articles, visit YourCommunityPaper.com and select History from our Features menu.

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