From Norman's daughter, Janet Eck Bloom:

Here is the history of how the toy store got started as told to me by my dad:

In 1955, Norm and Elaine decided to get out of the gasoline business. Ken Kelly was a salesman from S & M who sold them automotive and gas supplies, and he came to dinner with Mom and Dad. He went downtown and tried to buy a toy for Eric, and couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a toy store, so he helped Mom and Dad start the store.

Dad and mom spent a year going around Montana looking for a good place to start the toy store, and settled on the Placer Avenue location in Helena. Ken Kelly helped them find the fixtures and other items they needed to start the toy store. They began to remodel in 1956, and a year later, in 1957 they opened their doors.

Fixtures for the store came from Holter Harware. Two women helped them get started in the toy business- these women had previously been employees at Holter Hardware (which had been located down from the Placer Hotel on Main Street across from the Mint. Holter Harware had a large warehouse at the depot, and they did business in 10 western states.

Someone suggested that they should add hobbies, so Dad went to Spokane looking for hobbies, and Keith Dewey of Northwestern Hobby chose to do business with them. (The Deweys were moving from Spokane to Seattle at the time.) The Deweys were a bit reluctant to do business because Norm and Elaine’s business was so new, but when the first order was paid off in a month, they were happy to do business.

The toy store moved to Neill & Front in 1962 after Norm’s brother, Stan, who had a lease on the building did not renew. (This was previously a tire store that Stan moved to Main Street. Norm started the Pay –n- Save Gas on Neill and Front, he ran the gas business and Stan did the tires.) There were three bays that had been for tires, two bays became the toy store, and one was “the backroom.” This renovation took a couple of months.

Mom and Dad traveled to Minneapolis and Seattle to buy toys and hobbies every year. After they moved to the Neill Avenue location, Dad once again took over the Pay –n- Save gas business and Mom ran the Toy store. One summer, they even had ice cream inside of the toy store, but it did not work out. They ran the businesses for another 12 years before selling the business to Joe King. Mom and Dad always said of their businesses “It was a wonderful time. All the kids came going to school and coming home from school.”