the little toyshop shown in the background of the film "Bird on a Wire" is closing

[Lisa]

Obscure movie trivia note. The film, starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, was filmed some years ago in my town. If you look where Mel is stealing the motorcycle, that's the place. The store, Foxglove Toys, had moved to another part of the same building -- and the owner is nearing retirement age. She told me that she felt it was time for a rest.

The reason I mention this -- it stocked a different range of toys than most places. Plush animals, kites, spaceships, little figures of knights and dragons, model kits, puzzles ... there was so much stuff piled on the shelves that it took me a while to realize that the types of toy weapons it had just stopped at about the time of the Three Musketeers. And a surprising number of the games, building blocks, wooden trucks, etc., were made locally.

I suppose the owner came under quite a bit of pressure from distributors pushing the usual plastic offerings from Hasboro and Mattel, but she stuck by her guns (or lack thereof). I went in and picked up a ball with a jingly bell inside, from Europe, for a friend's infant -- and a stuffed toy coyote ("guaranteed sweatshop free") for her toddler sister. And kites for when they're both a bit older.

I don't have kids myself, and I didn't spend a lot of time in that store ... but I'm going to notice its absence. Maybe it shows that I've been here for so long that I can remember when most of that stores in that building were totally different (about the only one that's still operating, since the time of Goldie and Mel, is "Zydeco", the joke shop across the street). Even though it doesn't seem like that long ago.