Gee-haw whammy diddle

Spinning gee-haw whammy diddle
The gee-haw whammy diddle.

A gee-haw whammy diddle is a mechanical toy consisting of two wooden sticks. One has a series of notches cut transversely along its side and a smaller wooden stick or a propeller attached to the end with a nail or pin. This stick is held stationary in one hand with the notches up, and the other stick is rubbed rapidly back and forth across the notches. This causes the propeller to rotate. Sometimes also known as a ouija windmill, a hoodoo stick or a VooDoo stick. The word whammy is sometimes whimmy, and the word diddle sometimes doodle, giving it three possible other names, and the gee-haw may also be dropped.

Gee-haw refers to the fact that, by rubbing a finger against the notched stick while rubbing, the direction of the spinning propeller may be reversed. The operator may do this surreptitiously and yell "gee" or "haw" to make it appear that the propeller is reacting to the commands. When called a hooey stick, the word "hooey" is used to signify the change of direction.