The World Weeps for Geoffrey—A Part of our childhood has gone!

Without trying to sound like an old man reminiscing, when I was a boy we had real toy stores, 5 and dimes, candy stores, nut stores, and many more magic shops than we have now! Sure, the web is great– and Amazon has everything, well, almost, and now, if you know what you want, they can probably just ship it to you directly.

The occasional trip to the toy store was this former kid’s highlight. Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Battle Tops, Shoots and Ladders, Monopoly, Clue, besides the creations from Atari, Wham-O, Hasbro, Mattel, and the multitude of toys that most of us grew up with. Is online fulfillment to be the only toy store chain replacement? Are the days of the toy store long gone?

March 14, 2018’s announcement is a tragic blow to those of us who learned patience, concentration, manners, etiquette, cooperation, character, and sportsmanship, all just from board games, alone. Toys teach sharing and bringing friends together to learn proper play. Toys R Us, rather than just thinning the losses of a few chosen select toy superstores, has announced to soon shutter ALL of their toy superstores as well as Babies R Us!

While this may not mean much to some, I know that in my life, the toy store inspired me to invent and look beyond what could be! It expanded my imagination of who I could be or at least dream to be. A toy is really a child’s first tool! Tools can make us better, more productive, and diverse. Toys keep us young. They keep us active, initiated, and sometimes even, enchanted!

Losing the incredible mind of Stephen Hawking, after his contributions to space and science is a huge loss to dreamers everywhere (but what a contribution to the science, disability, and humanitarian fabric of our lives) — more of my tribute to Professor Hawking, very soon.