Toy Store Can’t Bear Up Under a Lack of Interest

Remember that television commercial 10 years ago of the fellow walking into the bank, teddy bears in tow, looking for a loan so he could start up a toy store?

The actor was playing the role of Will Chadwick, who indeed got the loan and started Chadwick’s Classic Toys in Escondido.

Chadwick wasn’t your run-of-the-mill toy merchant; he carried such items as Steiff teddy bears from Germany, collectible Kathy Kruse dolls and $2,000 model train locomotives--�the kinds of things you couldn’t find for 100 miles around,� Chadwick boasted.

Well, the original bank loan notwithstanding, Chadwick is closing his store.

There’s not enough appreciation in Escondido for exotic toys--not to mention enough business along tired Grand Avenue in downtown Escondido--to justify keeping the store open any longer, Chadwick said.

“Escondido is too conservative an area,� Chadwick, 33, sighed. “It used to be that people would come here from the coast and other areas to do their shopping, but those other areas have built up so much on their own, those shoppers don’t need to come here anymore.�

Furthermore, Chadwick adds, “Escondido doesn’t have enough eclectic, artistic people to support a high-quality toy store. We need to go out and find people who are more carefree with their money.�

Chadwick isn’t exactly leaving the business altogether. He figures he’ll spend half his time on the road, showing off his Steiffs and Kruses et. al. at specialty toy, doll and teddy bear shows around the country.

The rest of the time he’ll be back home in Escondido filling mail orders. With less overhead, Chadwick said he figures that now he’ll more than bearly eke out a living.

Salty but Sweet

Before we leave the topic of free enterprise, here’s word that San Diego is a test market for a new product called Pretzlcone, pitched as “the only ice cream cone made out of pretzel dough.�

It’s hardly a new idea, actually; Philadelphians will tell you how they’ve been dipping pretzels into soft ice cream for years, the idyllic blending for those who yearn for both a salt and sweet treat--a total tongue taste, if you will.

Its promoters boast that the cones are only 29 calories each.

Which might be great news unless you wash down your ice cream cone with a cold beer.

Yule Fund-Raisers

We’re coming up on Christmas fund-raisers, and here are two slightly different approaches, common insofar as they involve Christmas trees:

- Elizabeth Hospice in North County is sponsoring its traditional “Light Up a Life� Christmas tree; with every donation of $10 or more, a light will be lit on the hospice’s tree in memory of a loved one.

- Then there is Neiman-Marcus’ annual gala to benefit the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation of San Diego, featuring an auction of 5-inch ceramic Christmas ornaments personally decorated by such newsmakers and celebrities as Corazon Aquino, Walter Cronkite, John Ehrlichman, Malcolm Forbes, Larry Hagman, Charles Schulz, Red Skelton, John Travolta and the four surviving U.S. Presidents.

President Chiang Ching-kuo of Taiwan declined to return his ornament but instead sent $200 because “we understand that child abuse has become a serious social problem in the United States.�

No word yet on whether General Secretary and Mrs. Mikhail Gorbachev will be returning their ornaments.

Theater’s Last Call

Ten years after its opening night, the Fiesta Dinner Theatre stage in Spring Valley is going dark. Owners Joe and Lois Stevens say the Fiesta will remain open only as a restaurant.

It makes for a nice clean fade-to-dark, then, that the finale Jan. 10 will include a drawing to select the theater’s one-millionth customer over the past 10 years.

That person will get $1,000 and a lottery ticket. Maybe it’ll pay off for somebody, then, that the closing production is “Angel on My Shoulder.�

In Search of Self

We can’t imagine they’ll pack ‘em in with this talk but, hey, we’ve been wrong before.

The UC San Diego Extension is presenting a three-day workshop Wednesday through Friday on the subject of how we search for new ways of seeing ourselves as men and women. The speakers will be theologian and Buddhism student Martin Kalff and Sabine Hayoz-Kalff, who has practiced Tibetan Buddhist meditation for five years.

The title of their workshop: “The Emergency of the Feminine in Buddhism and Jungian Psychology.�

Blissful Event

Who said there’s not enough good news in newspapers? From the Ramona Sentinel we clipped this headline:

“Bliss Comes to Ramona.�

The story is about a new Sheriff’s Department head honcho there, Lt. David Bliss.