READY FOR WINTER?
f We carry Meyer plows for Residental and Commercial use, and a wide variety of Salt Spreaders. f We Service and Install All Types of Plows!
f 0% Financing for 12 Months
SUPER STORE
www.SnowPlowStuff.com
6105 Gateway Drive • Grand Forks, ND 701-746-0083 • 800-279-7492 • Hours: M-F 9-6 and Sat. 9-3
FAMOUS TOYS (continued): • Josh Cowen was always fascinated with toy trains. As a kid he fashioned an electric train that ran on a track around his bedroom, carrying his toys in its cars. Years later, he took his electric train to a man who owned several toy stores in New York, saying that if he placed the train in his front window during the Christmas season and loaded the cars with toys, this animated advertisement would increase sales of the toys. The shopkeeper agreed, bought the train from Josh, and set it up in his window. The next day Josh went down to the toy store to see his train in action and was shocked to see it was gone. The shopkeeper explained that people wanted to buy the train rather than the toys. He asked Josh if he could supply more toy trains, and Josh went to work on it. They sold as fast as he could make them. • In 1906 Josh started a company, which he named after his middle name. Soon his factory was turning out toy cattle cars, coal cars, passenger cars, train stations, tunnels, bridges, and more. When business dropped during the Great Depression, he invented a $1 wind-up handcar pumped by Mickey and Minnie Mouse. For a time in the 1950s, his company was the largest toy manufacturer in America. Josh’s middle name, carried on millions of toy trains, was Lionel.
• The original Mr. Potato Head was a sack of plastic parts, and kids had to supply their own potato. Mothers, however, got tired of finding moldy potatoes under the bed and behind the couch, so a plastic potato was added to the kit. Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on American television, appearing on the tube in 1952. Sales soared after Mr. Potato Head appeared in the 1995 film "Toy Story." In 1997 Mr. Potato Head starred as the spokespotato for Burger King's French fries.