Revisit the Good Old Days

ARA) – If you have kids, chances are good you already know that Hokey Pokey Elmo, the Barbie Cook with Me Kitchen, McDonald’s McFlurry Maker, and the Care Bears Bedtime Lullaby Bear are among the hottest toys around.
They may be the toys kids want these days, but they aren’t impressing a lot of parents or grandparents. “With all the crazy things going on in the world right now, people just want to get back to the simpler times. One way to do that is to share memories of your own childhood with the younger generation,” says Glenda Lehman Ervin, marketing director at Lehman’s, an old-time general store her father founded nearly 50 years ago in Kidron, Ohio, about an hour south of Cleveland.
All of the merchandise Lehman’s sells is old fashioned, but brand new. They have gas powered refrigerators, wood stoves, butter churns, lanterns, and imagination-powered toys. “The old fashioned toys are great because they require kids to do something. With our toys, batteries are not included because they’re not needed,” she adds.
Today’s parents and grandparents grew up playing with wooden yo-yos, tops and blocks, marbles, dominoes and checkers. All things that are hard to find in this day and age where technology is so prevalent in our lives. “People tell me all the time they can’t find the simple toys in the stores anymore, and that’s why they come to us,” says Lehman Ervin.
Her father’s store specializes in those hard-to-find treasures today’s parents and grandparents remember from when they were kids. The store sells wooden logs kids can use to build houses, pull-sleds they can put their dolls and stuffed animals in, wooden ABC blocks, steam-powered tugboats, and green and yellow Lehman’s Flyer wagons. The toys are mostly handmade and sell for between $8 and $100.
If you’d like to learn more about the toys and other simple living products Lehman’s sells, but can’t visit the store in person, you can order a print catalog for $3 by calling (888) 438-5346. To view an online version of their catalog, which is even more extensive, log onto www.lehmans.com. To specifically shop for toys, type the word “toy” into the search engine.
Courtesy of ARA Content