FAO Schwartz
Across Central Park at the legendary toy store FAO Schwartz, parents and children line up around the block to get in. Have I mentioned that, with the sun going down, the temperature is returning to the 20's? It is. Children on the line cry and squabble as the wind whistles down 58th Street. A toddler wails “I wannit! I wanna doggie!” as she points determinedly at a realistic stuffed pooch in the window. Once inside, a four-year-old almost knocks me over as she races to grab an enormous pink dog that’s as big as she is.
The store is packed with children of all ages, everyone staring awestruck at the sheer number of stuffed animals on the main floor alone. There are other floors with every conceivable kind of toy, but I can barely get through the crowd as it is. It’s noisy and overheated, yet the same children who screamed while on line outside could not be happier once they are indoors. (Apparently, it isn’t music that soothes the savage beast.)
A mother and daughter, tourists from Puerto Rico, have come to get a baby doll. The mother says that she had heard a lot about the store, and wanted to take her daughter. “It’s everything I hoped it would be,” she says with a smile as her young daughter plays joyously with her new doll.
22 year old Laura Cambridge, a new mother with a 7 ½ month old baby, is searching for toys for her infant. The stacking rings are good, but she has her eye on a rocking dog that she admits is “a little on the pricey side.” Still, she doesn’t think the prices are unreasonable for the quality.
