Remember the dime stores, like Woolworth's, Ben Franklin, and W. T. Grant?
Of course, by the time many of us became acquainted with these stores in the 1960s, the pricing had moved well beyond a mere nickel or dime. But the stores were still a lot of fun to poke around in if you were a kid, especially during the era when they were still selling turtles in the pet department.
I remember the W. T. Grant store in the Lorain Plaza pretty well. We just called it Grants, and that's what it's called in the ad below, which ran in the Journal back on November 8, 1962.
The items shown in the ad are a mixture of Grants products (like the tricycle) and well-known brands (like the Etch-a-Sketch). I see a little nurse kit for one dollar that kindled a long-dormant memory; my older sister had something similar that had little containers of candy pills in it.
Of course, the thing in the ad that caught my attention the most is the toy with Fred Flintstone riding Dino, his pet dinosaur (actually he was a Snorkasaurus). Those of us that watched the show know that Dino wasn't that big, and that the toy was probably based on the scene in the show's opening credits where Fred is working in the gravel pit.
"Dino gurgles!" is listed as one of the toy's attributes. (Maybe from drinking too much Welch's Grape Juice?)
Amazingly, many of these toys have survived and are all over the internet. Here's an ample sample.
I'm kind of surprised that we didn't have one of these in the house, considering that we had the Flintstone Play Set (by Marx!), Flintstone Checkers and the large Knickerbocker dolls.
