The things we teach kids

 by Stuart Crump Jr.

“Daddy, what does ‘O-F’ mean?” My daughter asked.

You see, she’s learning to read. In kindergarten, no less. When I was a kid we didn’t learn to read until first grade. Indeed, I went to school with a kid named Johnny who never learned how to read at all. Rudolph Flesch wrote a book about him. 

“Hug?” I replied, hoping to change the subject.

“What does O-F spell” she repeated.

“Of,” I replied. 

I HAD HOPED that they wouldn’t start teaching reading until first grade. I was looking forward to at least one more year of peace and quiet. 

“Daddy, what does O-F-F spell?” 

What in the dickens do these teachers think they’re doing, teaching kids to read at age five-and-a-half? Shouldn’t youngsters be spending more time watching television? Like adults do? 

“What?” I mumbled.

“What does O-F-F spell?” 

“Off,” I said, “as in ‘How do I ever turn you off?’”

“You can’t turn me off,” she said, “I’m not a television.” 

BENJAMIN Franklin wrote something in his autobiography about how he learned to read when he was about three years old. But then, what else was there for kids to do in those days? Donnie and Marie hadn’t even learned to skate back then. 

“What does O’F’F’F spell,” she asked, putting an extra emphasis on the last “F.” 

“Let me see that book,” I said.

“It’s not a book. I’m writing a letter and I wanted to know what I wrote.” 

“Who’s the letter to?” 

“Grandma and Grandpa.” 

“Why don’t you send it to them and let them read it? It isn’t nice for me to read other people’s mail.” 

She tried again. “What does O-F-F-F spell? Three F’s.” 

“Oooooooof,” I said, pretending someone had just slugged me in the stomach. She thought that was funny and laughed very hard. That’s what I like about kids. They laugh at my jokes. Sometimes. 

I WAS READING a study the other day that said children shouldn’t be encouraged to read too soon. Sometimes it isn’t good for them. It makes them smarter than their parents before they reach eight years old. I agree with that study. 

“What does O-F-F-F-F spell?”

“How many F’s did you say?”

“Four.”

“Four F means you’re not fit for military duty.”

“Daddy, tell the TRUTH,” she said, mimicking me perfectly.

At least it felt good to be able to come up with an original joke she hadn’t heard. It’s usually the other way around. 

For example, the other week she asked me, “What time is it when an elephant sits on a chair?”

Now what kind of question is that? I took a wild guess. “Time for the circus to start?” 

“Time to get a new chair.” 

Broke me up, too.

SO I THOUGHT I’d try one. She started it, after all.

“Okay, what’s black and white and red all over?” 

“A zebra that fell in the ketchup.” 

It wasn’t exactly the answer I was looking for. She probably read it in a book somewhere. Certainly not in a newspaper. We don’t put jokes like that in the newspaper. So I turned to her and asked, “Where’d you ever get a dumb answer like that?”

“You told me,” was her reply.

Guess who turned red all over. Not the zebra. 

This article originally ran under “Crump’s Corner” in The Princeton Packet newspaper. I was 5 1/2 years old at the time, as the article alludes to me having just started Kindergarten. I hand typed this from the file my dad kept, but unlike most of what he kept, there is no date on when the article first ran. 

Things My Dad Taught Me - and The World

[ This is a black and white photo of Stu Crump AKA “Professor Yo-Yo” wielding a Yoyo doing the trick, “Forward Pass,” at the White House Press Room in Washington, D.C. ]

I have previously mentioned that my dad, Stu Crump AKA “Professor Yo-Yo,” died after battling Parkinson’s Disease for over 20 years. I shared the closest thing he had to an obituary, a wonderful tribute made about him on YoYoNews.com 

My dad had vision issues, as I do. And so did my grandpa (who also recently died, after having just turned 100 years old). I think about both of them a lot. I have memories of my grandpa putting in his contact lenses every morning. He was a long time volunteer for his local chapter of The Lion’s Club. I think he volunteered with them from the 1960s through his death in 2021. 

I have memories of my dad “resting his eyes.” His eyes, like mine, got tired, and he would sit up in a comfy chair, and close them to rest them. 

My dad viewed the world differently from the vast majority of people “out there.” My dad taught the world that they all need a cellphone. People laughed at my dad. “Why would anyone need a cellphone when there is a pay phone on every corner?” “Cellphones give you cancer in the brain!” Dad persisted. He worked hard to teach cellphone companies how to market cellphones and get around consumers saying “I don’t want one, I don’t need one.” 

Let’s see if it worked - are you reading this from a cellphone? If so, smile and thank my dad, would you? His name is Stu Crump. Grammatically, I should say “was,” but he is still alive in my heart. So I am saying “is.” I hope you will be okay with my poetic or blog-etic license to choose the verb I want to, in regards to my own dad. 

I had everyone, at my dad’s memorial service, hold up their cellphone to honor him. In the audience was only one person that I know who didn’t have one. She told me about it later. She said, “why would I need a cellphone when everyone around me has one?” I thought that was funny and ironic. And: she’s right. She is no slave to cellphones. Her husband once told me: “she is the most ‘letter-writing’ person I have ever known.” Seems to me she connects with people in the good old-fashioned way of letter writing. How real and wonderful. That is an art that is being lost. 

In the words of Mark Twain (one of my dad’s favorite authors) - “But I digress.” 

So, my dad was a writer, as I am. He taught me everything he could. He was a single dad for the first 8 years of my life. We hung out and did stuff. He read his newspaper. He took me camping and to Boy Scout jamborees. He took me to basketball games and hockey games. He was the small town newspaper reporter, editor and photographer. He knew everyone in town. Wherever we went, he would introduce me to people. “Hey, Sam, this is my daughter, Jodi.” “Beth, come meet my daughter, Jodi.” He knew all the random people in every parking lot and at every playground. He was friends with all of them. 

So, as I am sorting out my life and my possessions, post-move, I have come across a lot of his writings. I want to honor his work. And I am choosing to add a new avenue to my own blog: 

My dad’s weekly column called “Crump’s Corner.” It ran in the Princeton Packet in New Jersey. I will also add other things he has written, as I find them. It is my intention to run one of his columns every month on the first Monday of each month, so long as my ADHD and disorganization doesn’t get in my way. 

I also have plans for at least one of his books. I am trying to figure out the marketing on that. If you know anything about marketing a book, please contact me; I would like to bend your ear. 

I hope you’re already on my How I See Things Facebook page. I invite you to also become a fan of the page I set up to honor my dad on Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/YoYoProfessor 

I just love the way my dad viewed the world, and I want to share it with all of my readers, too. He saw the world in unique ways and taught me to do that, too. And to me, sharing his work fits with the theme of my blog. 

I will be sharing the column in a blog post, all on its own. I hope you enjoy them. I hope you will read them, laugh a bit (the are clever and funny and sometimes quite wise) and comment. 

I hope you’re having a very nice summer. 

Reach for the Stars

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. Ok, well, my brain actually never shuts off.

One thing I have been thinking about (am constantly thinking about) is how much I miss my dad. I think about him every day. I think about him often. And I would just like to indulge my own emotions here and share some tidbits about my dad.

[A photo of my dad and me. He is wearing a yoyo t-shirt. Photo from October, 2014]

My dad was Stuart Crump Jr., also known as: "Professor Yo-Yo." He lived in the Washington, DC area his whole life. He would say "I'm the only Yoyo in Washington who knows what he's doing."

My dad entertained audiences at The White House for the Easter Egg Roll. Many years he did that. My dad entertained at The White House for the 4th of July event on the White House Lawn; an event for staffers. One year, after the war in Iraq known first as Desert Shield, then changed to Desert Storm, the soldiers came home in a big parade. My dad and I marched in a parade, doing yoyo tricks, to welcome home the soldiers from Iraq.

My dad entertained at countless schools, birthday parties, Bar Mitzvah's... he taught yoyo classes annually at the International Juggler's Festival in Las Vegas. He competed in countless yoyo contests, winning many in his age group over the years and over the various age groups.

My dad's entire goal in life was to bring happiness and joy to people around him. My dad inspired hope for a happy future. My dad, I feel, embodied kindness and hope to the nth degree. I believe that everyone he met, considered him to be a friend of theirs. I believe my dad felt absolutely the same way about them.

My dad was a single dad of me until I was 8. Then he married my step-mom. They had 3 boys together who are all a lot younger than I am. I feel like they are my full-blooded brothers. I love them all. My dad was so proud of all of them.

My dad was a Boy Scout. My dad never made Eagle. My dad said, "if I ever have a son, I want him to be an Eagle Scout." Guess what. All 3 of his sons became Eagle Scouts. All 3 of them can also wield a yoyo with panache.

My dad left a legacy behind him of yoyos. He was awarded the first trophy for a Lifetime Achievement Award from the yoyo community. It is housed in the American Yo-Yo Association museum in Chico, California. My brother who lives out there visited it a few weeks ago and sent me the photo of the trophy with our dad's name on it. I am so grateful that my dad's legacy lives on in various ways.

In addition to being a delightful entertainer, my dad was a prolific writer.

He wrote for his school yearbook in high school. One of the years, they made their yearbook into a record / an LP. A vinyl record. To be played on a turntable / a record player.

My dad took countless sports photographs. Every day since 7th grade he carried a camera with him. He always hoped to see a UFO some day. He wanted to be sure to have his camera with him when he saw it. The only day he didn't carry his camera was the day he married my step-mom.

Many of my dad's sports photographs won awards. Many were in the school yearbooks for high school and his college - Brown University. Many were in local papers.

One photo my dad took was of a Brown University student who did a prank. President Johnson was riding in a motorcade, visiting Providence, Rhode Island. My dad went and saw the parade, and snapped a photo of the President in the motorcade.

After he developed the photo, he realized that one of the guys on the car was a Brown University student. The kid was dressed in a suit and tie, same as the bodyguards. At some point in the parade, the kid just ran out from the crowd and hopped on the car like he belonged there. Yikes! My dad got a photo of that. I believe it ran in the local paper of the day. Quite the scandal of the day!

Another photo my dad took was of a student doing the long jump at a track meet, and as his arms went up and over his head, the framed a United States Flag over head quite nicely. My dad planned the shot and sat there. He waited all day to capture that photo.

My dad called that photo, "Reach for the Stars." It was one of his favorite photos he ever took. It's really neat looking. That photo is in my book, "Mere Creativity." You can purchase it on Amazon.com:

So, with my dad's yoyo shows, one of the things he always said at the end of every yoyo show was, he would do a "Shoot the Moon" yoyo trick. It's a dangerous trick that brings the yoyo very close to your face. My dad had a scar between his eyes from a red Duncan Butterfly yoyo that he used when he was learning the trick. He would do the trick, "Shoot the Moon," and say, "Reach for the Moon, because if you miss, you'll wind up among the stars."

My dad wrote so many books on yo-yoing. He also wrote books on other topics too, but I will share those in a future post or 5. Probably more than 5. Knowing me. I have a lot to share about my dad, and folks like learning about him.

You can find many of my dad's books on Amazon.com too:

I have been wondering recently what vision issues my dad had. I know he had near-sightedness. I know when I was a girl, that he would close his eyes and say, "I'm resting my eyes."

I know his prescription was much stronger than mine is. I know he had cataract surgery when he got older. I wonder if he also had spatial issues like I do, or other vision issues. I know he respected that I had vision issues. I will write about that in the next blog post.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a little about my dad. I have more to share, but this blog post is way long at this point, so it's time to close.

As any good stage person would say: "Always leave them wanting more!"

And, as my dad would say: "Just say 'YO!'"