I'm a Toys R Us Kid

I’m a Toys R Us Kid. 

I grew up about 10 minutes from the store in Nanuet NY. Today, whenever I’m driving down Rt. 304 in that area, I instantly become that little kid in the back of my parents car, asking “Can we go to Toys R Us?” I must have driven them crazy because I’m sure I asked every time we passed that intersection. It became ingrained in me like an involuntary muscle spasm. And each time it resurfaces and replays in my adulthood, it makes me smile.

I’m a Toys R Us Kid. 

I can remember a late night trip to the store in the hopes of getting one of the hottest toys of the season. I can vividly remember my family driving to the back loading dock, and getting to pick the specific model that I wanted from a shipment that had just arrived at the store. The manager clearly going out of their way.

I’m a Toys R Us Kid

The brand new bike in the living room on Christmas morning. Making Optimus Prime transform from truck to robot. The Millennium Falcon blasting off into space. Countless hours of fun. Endless hours of play. 

But so much more. 

They were lessons in perseverance: “Remember when you thought you’d never learn to ride a bike?” my father used to ask each time I expressed fear or trepidation about accomplishing something new.

They were lessons in curiosity, to look beyond the surface of people and things, to continue to ask “why?” 

They were lessons in creativity and limitless imagination. Opportunities to dream of what could be. 

Math and Science put a man on the moon in 1969. But tell me it wasn’t childlike wonder and play that made us think of it in the first place and know it was possible. “We’ll just build a rocket ship”

I’m a Toys R Us Kid

#ToysRUs #Imatoysruskid