When I was growing up in Chattanooga, TN, there was a toy store called “The Castle”. This is because the owners had taken a normal brick building and added wooden shingles to it to make it look like a castle with turrets. It was where I was taken if I got a good report card or for my birthday – or just because I needed a toy.

I miss that experience of rooting around and discovering just that special thing that I needed. I never got anything really expensive because I was very aware of how much money my parent’s didn’t have. I appreciated them wanting to get me a gift, but I also knew not to take them for granted.

I did some digging and found a scan of a newspaper image of it.

Here is what it looked like before they added the shingles. I never saw it this way.

The owner was Frank May.

It was located at the intersection of South Germantown Road and Ringgold Road – so I saw it every day on the way to school. Smack dab right in front of me, coming down S. Germantown to go left on Ringgold Road was this castle, with a lit up sign that counted down the days to Christmas.