Ilana Wilesのインスタグラム(mommyshorts) - 1月7日 04時29分

As some of my favorite places in the East Village permanently shut their doors, I wanted to talk about one you might recognize, if you’ve followed me for awhile. Dinosaur Hill was a toy shop on 9th Street, owned by Pamela Pier for almost 40 years. That’s her as the tiger on Halloween in the 3rd photo. I didn’t pay much attention to the store before I had kids, but once Mazzy was born, it became a neighborhood staple for us. My kids have been there countless times over the years (first shot is Harlow in 2014 and the second is Mazzy in 2012) to buy gifts, get a reward or just to browse around while we waited on line for brunch at Vselka next door. It was a magical little toy shop that sold no major brand names. There were hot air balloons that hung in the window, an oversized gumball machine outside, hand crafted marionettes that hung from the ceiling, tiny animal figurines by the door, birthday cards designed by local artists (or maybe Pamela herself?), and a step stool at the register. All of the toys they sold had no tech involved, but the place was so jam-packed with color and curiosities that it was overstimulating just the same. The best part of Dinosaur Hill was that they had so many low budget items in different nooks and crannies, like silly putty, jacks, bouncy balls and retro trinkets that it was the perfect place to take your kids for a small reward. You could give them $3 to spend and there were so many options for them to choose from. Because we were regular costumers, they gave me permission to shoot a video in there once for a collaboration I was doing. I’ll have to find it. When it was over, I let Mazzy pick out a toy. She chose a tiny wooden birdcage with a feathered bird inside. You could open the birdcage door to pet it and it would chirp. Last year when we did a major purge of her room, I picked up that birdcage to see if she wanted to keep it. The bird no longer chirped, it needed to be propped up or else it would fall over and there was a wooden slat missing from the side. She looked at me like I was crazy. “Yes! That’s special!” She was right. Everything at Dinosaur Hill was special. My family will miss it very much.

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