Tonight as I was driving home from work or more appropriately as I was sitting at a stop light in the act of driving home I noticed something that saddened me a little. I happened to stopped in front of the Toys R Us parking lot. The thing that saddened as well as surprised was the fact the parking lot was completely empty. Not the way it should be at five in the afternoon on July first. Obviously they’ve locked the doors, and most like for good.
I couldn’t help but think back to the type of store Toys R Us was in my youth and what it represented. They wouldn’t even let you in the place unless you were accompanied by a parent. Surely not because you’d destroy anything rather because its unlikely you would ever come back out.
If it had anything to do with fun, Toys R Us had it. They had what all the other retailers had in their toy departments, just that Toys R Us had so much more. An entire row of possibly every board game ever created, stocked in alphabetical order. GI Joe for boys and Barbie for girls, chemistry and geology sets, bikes and scooters. My generation was allowed Darwin’s law to take its natural course so they had lawn darts, creepy crawler sets with real hot plates, and the slip and slide with exposed metal anchors along the side to hold it down. It was the true fantasy land with the dreams and the danger.
Even when I got older and had my own kids, Christmas shopping was a one stop event with Toys R Us, by then having added video games into the mix. In fact I bought my first computer as an adult at Toys R Us
It’s probably been four or five years since I have gone into the store. It had already become a shadow of its former self by then. Gone were the long rows stacked to the roof.
Really it doesn’t surprise me at all, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. Not all that sad either, because I still hold onto those fun memories of what it once was. And those memories are awesome.