I Don't Wanna Grow Up...

The announcement came out last week that Toys-R-Us would be closing all of its stores (instead of just of some of them) over the next few months. This made me a bit sad since Toys-R-Us has been a big fixture in our lives for many years. The store we frequented the most was the one over by Kentucky Oaks Mall. I think (if I remember right) it opened soon after the mall really got going well. We went there a lot when the boys were young.

• There would always be the latest video gaming consoles set up for kids who came in to play whatever new video game was available. I remember our sons playing on these many times when we went there. If someone was already playing a game on them, my sons would stand right behind them to encourage them to finish.
  
  
• Whenever you wanted a particular toy, the place you could guarantee would have it was Toys-R-Us. Wal-Mart might have it, but Toys-R-Us pretty much always had whatever you were looking for.
  
  
• When the Nintendo Wii came out, there were always massive lines to get one when each shipment arrived. I remember Josh going to wait there to get one and they ran out right as he got up to the head of the line. Amazingly, one more was produced “from the back” and he was able to get one.
  
  
• Whenever I went on travel for my company, I would always go to Toys-R-Us in the place I visited to get the boys something. It become a running joke with my co-workers that after dinner “Stuart has to go to Toys-R-Us”. I would buy the boys metal trains from the Thomas the Tank Engine series and they each developed quite a collection of these.
  
  
• “I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys-R-Us kid”
  
  

My sister Melissa told me that as she was telling my nephew Brody that he needed to spend a Toys-R-Us gift card he had before the company went out of business, my niece Catherine overheard. She burst into tears and was inconsolable. My sister tried to explain to her that it wasn’t closing because people didn’t like the store but for other reasons. Catherine ended up making the sign below that she wanted to take to the store.

I didn’t burst into tears, but it makes me sad too.