Toys Я Us takes Tower's place on East 4th

I used to have the key to the bathroom at this Tower. Once and a while during the summer, my dad would take me to work with him. He had a few accounts here. I always liked this one better than the "Uptown" one.

Here I used to work the Ticketron machine; I was like 8 or 9 years old, I could barely see over the counter. When I'd tell people certain concerts were sold out, they'd get in a huff of disbelief; because I was so young I had to be incompetent or doing something wrong. Then the manager would come over and go "Yep, it's sold out. Just like the kid said. Sorry". Vindication!

I remember this vividly: I had a Tower gift certificate one time; it was for like $80 or $90, which back then was like a million dollars in a record store. I remember hearing "You Really Got Me" on the speakers in the store and I asked a clerk who it was and went and bought a Kinks greatest hits cassette. My dad was so psyched that I'd made that connection/transaction on my own. To this day, the Kinks are one of my favourite bands.

When VCR's first came around, my dad would bring home rental movies from Tower for us to watch. They came in these faux-leather brown plastic cases and if you wanted to buy one, they were like $89.95 each. This is back when you'd have to pay for video rental memberships and owning a VHS of a movie you loved was absolutely unheard of.

I had a lot of great memories of this store. Years later, it was a real trip seeing my own bands CD's stocked on the shelves. Full circle I think they call it.

Yeah, well now its gonna be a Toys Я Us. Thanks Vornado!