Toy stores carry a certain magic

There’s something about toy stores at Christmastime.
As a kid, I haunted places like G.C. Murphy — the dime store in Portland — and the Art Craft, especially on Saturday mornings.
It’s no exaggeration to say that a dedicated 10-year-old could recite a good chunk of either store’s toy inventory by the middle of December. And it’s safe to say that some items exerted an almost supernatural pull.
The attraction often was not rational. Why, for instance, did I find myself wanting a plastic Howdy Doody ukelele when I was about 7? And what dreams of show business made me covet a Jerry Mahoney ventriloquist’s dummy?
My favorite toy department in those days was in Fort Wayne at Wolf and Dessauer, an old line department store that my mother liked. I’d split off from her at the earliest convenience to go to the fourth floor and browse through the toys. For years, I used to dream about that place.
As an adult — first as a parent and now as a grandparent — I have two favorite toy stores.
One is a crowded shop in Stratford, Ontario, crammed with more toys than you can imagine. It’s called Family and Company, and it is a delight.
One might even say it’s magical. On Saturday mornings, young staff members do magic tricks for kids. If one of the tricks is purchased, the same staff members teach the lucky kid its secrets, all without letting the parents know how the trick works. (Our daughter Sally bought a card trick years ago that her parents have never figured out.)
The second is much more convenient than Family and Company. It’s just down the road in Richmond, and on Saturday we made a pre-Christmas pilgrimage to check out its wonders.
Actually, we weren’t Christmas shopping. We’d already wrapped up our Christmas shopping for the grandchildren, but our youngest grandson has a birthday on Christmas Eve. (Appropriately enough, his name is Gabriel.)
So Saturday’s trip was just for the birthday boy.
And Veach’s didn’t disappoint. Known officially these days as Veach’s Toy Station, the store in downtown Richmond was simply Veach’s for a couple of generations.
I remember visiting its toy train department as a kid, and all of our daughters registered at the Veach’s birthday castle for a gift when they were little.
Today, it’s even better. Though it used to be more of a variety store, the shop now concentrates solely on toys. Family-owned, it has a friendliness and ease that you’ll never find at a shopping mall.
It’s hard to imagine a greater selection. We saw toys Saturday we didn’t know existed, and — to tell the truth — the grandparents went a little bit overboard.
But that’s okay. It’s never easy for a kid to have a birthday close to Christmas. That’s our excuse, and we’re sticking to it.