There are seven signs placed around the wire bin holding the plastic bouncing balls. Two state the price–$1.99. The other five warn customers not to bounce the balls.
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Perhaps it would help to know that Hecht’s first job out of college was as a minor-league baseball umpire in Oklahoma. Players gave him a tough time, and he wasn’t afraid to show them who was boss. “If they gave me a lot of trouble on strike two they better be swinging on the next pitch….I had the last word. I know that.”
The $250 a month Hecht was paid to call games was great money in the early 50s. But in the off-season he had nothing to do. So he agreed to work at his cousin’s “high-class toy store” at 677 N. Michigan. The job was only supposed to last a few months, but he met a girl. Renee, an elementary school teacher, was the sister of the store’s accountant. On their first date Hecht arranged to take her to an expensive restaurant downtown. Before you can even ask he’ll tell you that dinner set him back three dollars. Renee says she wasn’t impressed, but “[we] started going out, and before you knew it we were married in five months.”
“You can’t beat this,” says Sally Kirkpatrick, who drives in from Grayslake to shop at Cut Rate. “Playmobil and Lego don’t go on sale. Here they’re on sale.” Plus, notes shopper Anne Riddick, “It’s a nice atmosphere. You don’t have a lot of kids running around.”
Renee laughs in response and says, “I don’t know. I think we’re getting close. It’s been a long time.” After all, selling toys wasn’t her chosen profession. “I just happened to fall into it,” she says. Hecht quickly adds, “She married the wrong guy.”
