My Wife Does Not Remember Lionel Playworlds

I found a batch of pics showing toy isle from when I was a child.  I showed these to my boys and they thought they were cool. The whole feel of a toy store of toy department in a store was so different than what we have today.

They had the isle packed with the toys so you could walk down those isles and be engulfed in it all. Most stores now have a small area for each line and generally keeps a small amount of product out there. Very much not the same feeling.

Here in Colorado the big toy store chain when I was growing up was Lionel Playworld. Toys R Us moved into the state and put them out of business.  Yet Toys R Us stores never had the same feel to them.

Yes, I did the old man thing and told my boys how I remember one store where the sun light came through the window and lit up the action figure packing that really made the isle feel magic. Stores no longer have windows that would create that kind of vision.

It might sound a little cliche, but the magic of the toy department/stores that was there when I was a kid has vanished. It is confirmed by my boys seeing these pictures and being wowed by what they see.

As the title of this blog says, my wife actually does not remember the Lionel Playworlds stores. In her area they had a Children Palace instead. Even there she doesn't have the appreciation of toys I do.

It is clear I am getting old as I can keep up with these stories of 'When I was your age' with my boys.