Toy Joy

Toy Joy is a very unusual store on Guadalupe near the UT campus. While it is certainly possible to buy things for kids here (on my visit last Saturday they had a supply of an interesting Italian rubber riding toy) they cater more to college kids (and people who never grew up, like me). My friend and I walked around the store Saturday after eating a Greek salad and splitting a gyro across the street at Milto's.

While we admired a supply of two-headed babies (Halloween item?), a large man held up a rubber ducky with horns and ask the cashier, "Is this a UT tradition?"

"No," she said. "It's just an evil ducky."

Well, the horns did look a little burnt orange to me, although they were devil horns, not longhorn horns. Gives you an idea for a new variation on the rubber ducky, though.

"I'm from out of town so I had to ask," the large man said but not with much apology in his voice.

I used to collect toys before I became the downsizing queen. (More on that at The Visible Woman.) And my favorite thing to collect were "Bendable, Posable, Collectible" figures. You know like Gumby and Poky , those claymation characters brought to life with rubber with wire inside. I didn't buy anything on Saturday. Back in my collecting days I would have been tempted by Simpsons figures in Halloween costumes and some Gumby figures in outfits. But no more! My companion bought some bubble gum. I filed away things they had for kids for future reference.