BY THE WAY: `FITZ' SUMMONED TO GIVE BOOMERANG LESSON

When Tom Fitzgerald decides to throw himself into his work, all he needs is wide open spaces, a sharp flick of the wrist and the wonderment of what can be done with an oblong piece of wood.

His success can be measured in many happy returns.

Having spent eight years tossing, designing and competing with the boomerang, the St. Louis entrepreneur gets the itch now and then to take his show on the road.

Fitzgerald and Roger Perry, former captain of the Australian boomerang team, will take their favorite product and skills to Southeast Missouri to conduct demonstrations Thursday through Saturday.

Demonstrations are essential to keep business, well, boomeranging. "Unless someone shows you how to throw, there's a lot of opportunity for failure," Fitzgerald said.

If you have ever tried to toss a boomerang on an experimental basis you will appreciate a demonstration from an expert. I spent the better part of an afternoon at Arena Park chasing a boomerang that just didn't seem to want to come back.

When I did get the "rang" to hang in the right direction I had no notion how fast the thing was traveling when I tried to catch it.

Perhaps Fitzgerald and Perry will show me the error of my ways.

The St. Louis native learned how to fling the boomerang from a book he checked out of the local library eight years ago. The same book showed him how to make a boomerang. He never envisioned that his fascination with the boomerang would provide him with a living, however.

"It started out as a curiosity, turned into a hobby and later evolved into a business," said Fitzgerald, who operates from a cart located inside St. Louis' Union Station. He has owned the boomerang company Return to Sender for four years. He calls the cart Gateway to Flight.

First stop on the tour here is Perryville on Thursday at the elementary and middle schools. "We'll give a little bit of the history of the boomerang and then provide demonstrations to show how much fun it can be," Fitzgerald said.

Curiosity gave Fitzgerald and his wife the impetus to provide housing for Perry when the Australian was conducting a boomerang tour in the mid-1980s. Fitzgerald and Perry have been corresponding and collaborating on boomerang promotions ever since.

Although he also sells kites and Frisbees from his cart at Union Station, Fitzgerald's first love has always been the boomerang.

"I realize it's not as easy to throw the boomerang as it is the Frisbee, but that's part of the fascination," Fitzgerald said. "Once you catch on, you automatically get to be a showoff in your neighborhood or class."

The boomerang tandem of Fitzgerald and Perry will also offer demonstrations in Cape Girardeau and Jackson on Friday.

Schools interested in having Fitzgerald and Perry perform a demonstration should call 1-314-839-1604 or 1-314-421-0049. The final demonstration will take place at Shawnee Park at 8 p.m. Saturday.

"We wanted to do a night demonstration to show off the boomerangs that have lights embedded in them," Fitzgerald said. "It's also a chance for the kids and their families to get together for an hour and a half of fun."

The lights in the glow-in-the-dark boomerangs are activated when the boomerangs are thrown. The show is choreographed to music and features more than 100 boomerangs.

The boomerangs range from $10 to $25 and above. "If you're going to buy something that costs $25 or more, it will have added features on it," Fitzgerald said. Having known Tom since we graduated from high school in St. Louis, perhaps "Fitz" will give me a private demonstration.

He asked me if I had any instruction from anyone else. I told him our friend Dave, who is an elementary teacher in Jackson, tried his best. "Dave couldn't teach you?" he said with disbelief. "You really do need our help."

~Bill Heitland is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.