Wall to wall toys

There's not a lot of good that can come out of a bad check, but Fred Pickrell has certainly made the most of his story after he once received one.

Pickrell, a Fontanelle native, the son of the late John and Mildred Pickrell, who now divides his time with his bride of 57 years, Mary, between Greenfield and Boulder, Colorado, where she's from, received a bad check once from a customer when he was a machinist, and that customer brought him a toy firetruck as collateral until he could repay the damage of the bad check.

In the meantime, Pickrell, who enjoys tinkering with toys and other items, took the firetruck and made a replacement ladder for it as the ladder was missing. This began what is now a large toy collection that Pickrell was trying to find a place for.

Pickrell found the answer to his quest in the Nodaway Market, the grocery store that closed in Fontanelle just a few years ago. With a few phone calls, Pickrell purchase the old grocery store and began converting it into a place to store his numerous toys. Soon, he hopes to begin a toy museum. About all that's left reminding a person of the grocery store are the one-way doors at the front and the green floor mat inside the door that still has the grocery store's name on it.

"This started from having collected so much, from me getting older and not being the one who wanted to sell the collection, so I told Mary that we've gotta get a building somewhere and put everything in a building," Pickrell said. "Why toys? Probably because I didn't have that many toys when I was a kid. I've always kind of been enthused about toys."

Beyond the toy firetrucks — there are many, of varying types and sizes — there are toy tractors, toy trucks, and nine full-sized cars. All of the cars have sentimental value to the Pickrells either as cars they've driven or cars Mary's father owned. Also in the collection is a camper Mary's father built from a 1950s Ford station wagon.

The gentleman who offered the toy firetruck as collateral for the bad check eventually reconnected with Pickrell and told him he could keep the truck. By then, Pickrell had bought another identical truck, finding he was accurate to within a quarter of an inch from the original on the one he had replaced the ladder assembly on. This gave him confidence that he could fix other toys up.

From there, Pickrell began fixing up old toy trucks, and from memory, he made a long list of the over 40 farmers who hauled livestock in the early 1960s when he, his father and grandfather were hauling livestock. Pickrell has since built toys that replicate many of their trucks, as he remembers them, and they're impressively detailed.

Pickrell estimates he has between 700 and 800 toys in his collection. His intention is to share these toys with anyone who will stop and take a peek. A tractor ride from Bridgewater recently stopped to look at his collection, and according to Pickrell, the group took time in the collection enjoying all of the pieces and the memories they evoked.

"A lot of these toys around here have been restored because they were just missing a few pieces. Some I would buy at garage sales, I'd save them, then I'd tear them apart and start to restore them after I retired in 1997," Pickrell said. "All these toys I boxed up and I stored them whenever I could find a corner. It grew into this."