Origins
It was a dark night in a small town in central Utah in the early 90's. A handful of teenage boys were prowling around, up to no good. I was there. We found a hula hoop in the park and took it with us on our walk. We played frisbee with it in the empty streets. We rolled it down the road, but put a little English on it, so it would roll back. We walked past the fair grounds and saw a lonely street light at the end of a T-bone in the road. The challege was obvious; giant ring toss. We took turns lobbing the plastic ring at the light, trying to get it hooked over the light pole. It took longer than I thought it would. Throw after throw missed and sent the hoop rolling. Random strangers stopped to help us. I was never an athlete, so my throws were pathetic, but entertaining. But as with life, persistence is the recipe for success. In the end the hoop was hanging for all to see. The next morning at school, people were talking about the hula hoop on the light pole. It was m...