Our children’s department is a safe haven where kids can be while Mom and Dad shop. We have a toy box filled with good old fashioned toys like a Fisher Price Activity Center. Remember those? It actually has a date stamped on it: 1986! We have a rotary dial phone on a pull string, a plastic cat carrier with a little furry cat inside. A spinning top is a favorite of many of our littlest customers. You push down on it and it spins. That’s all it does. Spin. And the kids love it.

One of my favorite children’s books that we carry is “It’s A Book” by Lane Smith. It reminds me of our spinning top. In “It’s a Book” a monkey is reading a book. A jackass comes up to him and asks him, what is that? It’s a book. What does it do? Nothing. It’s a book. How do you turn it on? You don’t. It’s a book. What does the top do? It spins. It just spins? Yep, isn’t it wonderful!

When our regular little customers come in they dart through the maze of book cases and displays in the main store and head right for “their” department. Two small sisters who come in regularly each grab a book, sit on the floor and read their respective selections. Out loud. At the same time.

Over the years children small and tall have told me that this is their favorite store. Even though we don’t sell that must have attachment to the most recent must have gadget. Or the most exciting computer game. Older kids feel like they grew up here. It hasn’t changed much over the years. And that is one of the things they like about it. It even smells the same, they tell me. I imagine it still feels like that safe haven. And isn’t that wonderful!