Have you ever seen a "Hooey stick" ? It's a dowel with a row of notches on one side, and a "propeller" tacked on to the end.
One rubs a stick back and forth over the notches, causing the propeller to turn. The operator then exclaims, "Hooey!" and the propeller reverses direction. This can be repeated ad infinitum.
The first hit on a Google search of Hooey stick finds an excellent demonstration, but this doesn’t mean you can’t amaze you friends and relatives.
I had one of those as a kid, but it had two propellers. If you worked the stick right, they would spin in opposite directions.
I had forgotten about that toy until I saw your comment. And I never knew what it was called before.