Nows and Forevers

I am still a Toys R Us kid, long after I grew up.

In the ’70s and ’80s, as I tell my kids way too much, we didn’t have a ton of options for toys. There were a few toy stores and toy sections of places like Caldor and Bradlees when I was growing up in Connecticut and Massachusetts. When my dad would take me into Manhattan, a couple of times a year, he would let me go to the big FAO Schwartz store in Fifth Avenue.

I had kids too late to appreciate FAO Schwartz. Now THAT was a toy store.

They had Toys R Us, although sadly, that too went out. It was gone but not forgotten. Now it’s back, thanks to a deal with Macy’s. It’s nowhere near its former glory. It’s what they call in the business “a store within a store.” At my local Macy’s, it was about a dozen shelves of toys.

Nothing can be like it was, I guess.