{"id":7304,"date":"2012-08-06T21:55:13","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T01:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=7304"},"modified":"2012-08-06T21:55:13","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T01:55:13","slug":"serendipity-at-the-kruger-street-toy-train-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2012\/08\/06\/serendipity-at-the-kruger-street-toy-train-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Serendipity at the Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just in case there are some of you who still have doubts that Twitter<\/a> and\/or Facebook<\/a> can make the life of the flesh even sweeter (well, I don’t mean you<\/em>, of course, but that other person over there), let me tell you about the visit Irene and I made last Monday to Wheeling, West Virginia’s Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was going to be the last official stop on our vacation, after seeing those two Frank Lloyd Wright homes<\/a> and those three operettas<\/a>, and I commented online that we were shortly to be heading that way. Within minutes, our friend Mindy Klasky popped up to say that if we did<\/em> happen to go, she’d appreciate a photo, because that’s where her father had donated his collection of hundreds of Monopoly board variations.<\/p>\n

Well … now we had<\/em> to get over there!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was stunned by how magnificent the restored Victorian-era building was. I hadn’t known what to expect. I thought we’d see something similar to the small wood-frame building that housed the collection of the Yokohama Tin Toy Museum<\/a>. But it was nothing of the kind.<\/p>\n

Irene and I had lots of fun wandering the museum looking at toys from our childhoods, as well as those that were much older, and as we climbed the stairs to the second floor, where I was told the Monopoly collection could be found, I felt more of a connection to the place than I would have had Mindy and I not exchanged a few words online.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And when I discovered the placard crediting the Klaskys for having donated the collection, it made the world feel smaller, and in a good way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So I’ll have no more dissing of social media, do you hear?<\/p>\n

And now that you’ve been properly chastised (no, not you<\/em>, of course, but that other person over there), let me leave you with something to lighten your mood\u2014the sounds of the museum’s antique nickelodeon.<\/p>\n