2025 52 Card Project: Week 38: Lark Toys

[pegkerr]

This week, as another Year of Adventure event, Pat Wrede and I (at Pat's suggestion) took a road trip to Kellogg, Minnesota to visit Lark Toys. I'd never heard of the place before, but it was an enjoyable jaunt indeed. It was started by a man who was interested in creating a market for his carved wooden toys, and over the years it has grown to be a remarkable place. Besides being a toy store, it is a toy museum. It was great fun to wander down the corridor of "Memory Lane" and identify old toys that I had as a child, that I haven't thought of for years: Spirograph, the game of Life, Chinese Checkers, Operation, spin tops, etc. There was an impressive little bookstore, too, with thoughtfully curated books for adults as well as children.

The centerpiece is a truly extraordinary carved carousel, created by the original owner. There was a cafe, and a fudge emporium, and had we been inclined, a miniature golf course.

It was a lovely drive, and Lark Toys was great fun and well worth the trip. Highly recommended I came home with a wee giftie for M, which I look forward to seeing her enjoy.

Image description: Background: a corridor of Lark Toys, lined with display cases. Top: a sign with the words "Memory Lane." Upper left: the logo for Lark Toys, the silhouette of a bird with a wind-up toy key on its back. Below the silhouette: the words "Long Ago." Below the "Memory Lane" sign, another sign which reads: "As once the wing'd energy of delight carried you over childhood's dark abyss, now beyond your own life buid the great arch of unimagined bridges. -Rainer Marie Rilke." Below this sign: a stylized tree, over a pillowed reading nook. Right: a lamp past with directional signs jutting out of the post. Left: a wooden stand filled with lollipops. Lower half: a rabbit and a swan each wearing a saddle (figures from a carousel). Bottom: a family of toy bunnies and a group of Matryoshka Russian nesting dolls.

Lark Toys



Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Comments

[lydamorehouse]

I love this place. I'm glad you got a chance to visit it!

[gerisullivan]

Jeff Schalles and I visited Lark Toys during an "escape from Minicon planning" day about a month before Minicon 34 or Minicon 35. While there, I purchased the 1990s replica of the Marx Atomic Cape Canaveral Missle Base play set. I enjoyed having it, and I also enjoyed giving it to a young woman at the end of this year's Boskone after seeing how she figured out how to launch the rockets and Bomarc missles. I'd taken it to the convention as part of the "amusements" area I set up with American Bricks, a jigsaw puzzle, the missle base, and other small toys to play with. Glad to hear it's still going strong!