Lawrence Lee, aka Uncle Lee, and his daughter, Lindy, work the counter at Uncle Lee's Toy World in the early 1970s. Courtesy photo

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

It didn’t take long for little Mark Shelton to find his favorite toys at his favorite store — Uncle Lee’s.

“Through the wooden doors and straight ahead,” Shelton recalled. “I always went right to the models — the kind you assemble and paint. A bell would ring when you went through the door, and you would be staring straight at the model aisle.”

The display seemed to go on forever, he said.

“It seemed like an endless selection of model airplanes, ships, tanks and cars,” Shelton said “The shelves on the north side of the building were covered.”

Shelton’s childhood friend — Phillip Troy — could usually be found close by.

“They had cool motorized airplanes — some hanging from the ceiling,” a wide-eyed Troy remembered. “The airplanes and the drag-racing slot cars were my favorites.”

About 50 years later — yeah, we’ll go with that — the two men are still friends, and their eyes still light up when discussing Uncle Lee’s Toy World, located Downtown on Adams Avenue where Temple Public Library is now. The business later moved to 25th Street but retained much of its appeal to Temple youth.

“I loved that the store always smelled like bubble gum,” said Sally Hartley. “It was a wonderful store. They wrapped gifts in red and white striped paper and tied a piece of candy to it like a bow.”

“Yes!” agreed Ann Blankenship Peterka. “I knew if the gift I was getting was wrapped in red and white it came from Uncle Lee’s. It was a magical place.”

Cathy Weinblatt said the store was just about as close to heaven as a kid could get.

“My parents gave me a huge stuffed elephant from Uncle Lee’s when I was around 10,” she said. “I named him Sidney. I don’t know why.”

According to Gerry Wilder, Uncle Lee’s had a sign shaped like stacked blocks.

“I loved the dolls,” Wilder said. Tiny Tears was my go-to doll. She cried real tears and wet her diaper.”

Uncle Lee’s was owned by Lawrence West Lee and his wife, Helen Green Lee. Both have since passed, but their daughter Lindy and son Johnny were also involved in the business. Lindy remembers the toy store days fondly.

“I loved playing with the toys after hours,” Lindy said. “I remember picking out my own Christmas gifts without my parents knowledge.”

“I would select them, wrap them and place them under the tree,” she said with a smile.

Imagine her parents surprise when she unwrapped gifts they didn’t get for her.

So how did Uncle Lee’s get its start?

Lawrence and Helen were both from Temple but they were living in Alice, Texas, where he was a manager at JC Penney Co. The couple became friends with a toy wholesaler at Lachman-Rose in San Antonio, Lindy said.

“My parents loved kids and had talked about opening a toy store,” Lindy said. “So they asked the wholesaler for a recommendation on where a good location would be. Low-and-behold, the man said ‘Temple.’ Of all places, he named the town where they were from.”

So after about a half dozen years in Alice, the family packed up and went home, and around 1955 they opened Uncle Lee’s.

Lindy said she began working at the store in third grade.

“I wrapped gifts until I graduated from Baylor in 1971,” she said. “And I worked a lot of weekends.”

“My parents loved the children and enjoyed watching them grow up,” she said. “It was a job for my parents to know they were participating in special days and occasions.”

Lindy fondly recalled tying a piece of candy or bubble gum to each present as a gift from the store to the child receiving the present.

While hundreds — maybe thousands — of different kinds of toys made their way through Uncle Lee’s, there are a few that stand out in her mind — the Barbie doll with the ponytail and black-and-white bathing suit, the original G.I. Joe, Hula Hoops and all of the original Cabbage Patch Kids.

Lindy said her father kept up with the latest toys by visiting wholesalers in San Antonio and I Dallas.

“I would go with him to seasonal shows around Christmas and in the summer, and they would have the latest and most popular toys,” she said. “I particularly liked going to San Antonio to Lachman-Rose. They would serve a buffet and I would sit there and eat guacamole.”

When new toys arrived that he knew would be in demand, Uncle Lee often sat a few aside to offer his regulars.

“He knew local families would be wanting the toy but it would soon be hard to find,” Lindy said.

“Daddy enjoyed dealing with out-of-towners who called or came in searching for a particular toy,” she said. “The would always say: ‘I have been searching everywhere for this toy.’ He would grin and say: ‘You should have come to Uncle Lee’s first.”

The Lee’s rented their store space and were asked to leave when the property owner decided to sell the land to make room for a new bank. The new location was on 25th Street, and the new location opened with a bang, Lindy said.

“I remember one of the drawing prizes was a Surrey with fringes on top like from the show Oklahoma,” she said. “You peddled the Surrey to make it go.

Uncle Lee’s closed following the death of Lawrence in 1974, but the store’s many patrons remember it fondly.

“My grandfather, Pop (Anton) would take me to Uncle Lee’s every Saturday and buy me a new toy,” said Ron Bravenec. “I loved that place!”

Sidney the elephant, a gift that came from Uncle Lee's Toy World, decorated the childhood room of Cathy Weinblatt for many years. Courtesy photo

MONDAY | MAY 16, 2022

Singers perform during last year’s SoundCheck. This year, performances will be held Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21, at 7:30 p.m. each night in the Temple High School Auditorium. Courtesy photo

THS presents SoundCheck 2022

Our Town Temple

The Temple High School Choir will wrap up the 2021-22 concert schedule with one of the program’s biggest shows — SoundCheck.

SoundCheck 2022 will feature approximately 45 students from Temple High School choir classes performing in what is best described as a live concert performance highlighting popular songs from a variety of well-known acts.

Students earned spots in the show through an audition process. Performances will be held Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21, at 7:30 p.m. each night in the Temple High School Auditorium.

Cameron Roucloux, the head choral director at Temple High School, says the show is one of the highlights of the year, not only for the students performing, but also for the audience members with an experience that appeals to music lovers of all ages and genres.

“The Temple High School Choir Department is excited to bring SoundCheck 2022 back to the stage at the THS Auditorium,” Roucloux said. “This a high-energy show with a live professional backing band, live sound, and professional lighting, featuring Temple High School choir students as the main performers. Acts will perform numbers from Fall Out Boy, Destiny’s Child, Alicia Keys, Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Selena, Adele, ABBA, Madonna, TLC, George Michael, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Journey and more!”

Reserved seat tickets for SoundCheck 2022 are $20, adult general admission tickets are $15 and student general admission tickets are $5. Tickets will be available at the door both nights or may be purchased in advance at the following link: https://centraltexastickets.com/organizations/temple-high-school-choir. The Temple High School Choir Booster Club will also be holding a raffle during the concert.

May’s second half looks to be a scorcher

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

Summer is still five weeks away, but Temple is getting a little preview of the “dog days” ahead.

According to Allison Prater, a  meteorologist with the National Weather Service, Temple will flirt with the century mark all week without actually hitting triple digits.

“It could happen, but I think Temple will stay just shy of 100 degrees,” she said. “I’m looking at 98 degrees on Monday through Thursday, then it will creep up to 99 on Friday. No rain, just hot.”

Prater did say high temperatures may dip into the low 90s on Saturday and perhaps as low as 88 on Sunday.

“There’s a slight chance of rain for next Sunday, but of course that’s still a few days out,” she said. “That could definitely change.”

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today’s best bets

• Lonesome Dove: The Photo Exhibit runs through June 25 at Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum. The exhibit is a collection of black-and-white framed photos captured by the late Bill Wittliff, renowned photographer, writer, and co-executive producer of the popular Western mini-series.

• Yoga Classes offered by Sara Dodd at the Cultural Activities Center. $12. 5:15 p.m. class.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

To include your events in What’s Happening, email information to OurTownTemple@gmail.com. Photos are welcome to for use in the publication as space permits!

For decades, Louis Marek owned and operated a popular drug store at 2 S. Main Street. But, that wasn’t his first location. What iconic building was home to Marek Drug in 1938? ANSWER IS AT END OF TODAY’S ISSUE

On this day in 1902, Texas Ranger Anderson Yancey Baker killed suspected cattle rustler Ramón de la Cerda, thus touching off a feud that cost the lives of several more men. Ramón, his brother Alfredo, and their father owned the Francisco de Asís Ranch, which bordered the famous King Ranch. Their father was killed in 1900 by a Brownsville policeman. In 1901 the brothers were arrested and charged with rustling cattle from the King Ranch and changing the King brand from "W" to "Bar-W." In May 1902 Ramón was in the process of branding cattle on King's El Sauz pasture when Baker killed him in an exchange of gunfire. The incident provoked newspaper charges of abuse on the part of the rangers, and led to a series of gunfights that left one ranger and two Mexican Americans dead and one ranger wounded. In the final episode of the feud ranger Baker was acquitted of the murder of the Cerda brothers in 1903. He went on to become the political boss of Hidalgo County.

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On this day in 1843, two ships of the Texas Navy--the sloop-of-war Austin and the brig Wharton--won a decisive victory in a return engagement with two Mexican ships off the coast of the Yucatán. The Austin and the Wharton chased the powerful new Mexican steam warship Moctezuma and steam frigate Guadaloupe some fourteen miles before the Austin, having sustained seventeen hits to hull and rigging, withdrew to Campeche. The Austin, commanded by Edwin Ward Moore, and the Wharton, under John T. K. Lothrop, had sailed from New Orleans in April hoping to engage the Moctezuma and to break up a rumored amphibious assault on Galveston Island. The two Texas ships had first engaged the Moctezuma and the Guadaloupe on April 30. Their second encounter, a little more than two weeks later, was a clear victory for the Texans and was immortalized in an engraving on the cylinder of the famed Colt Navy revolver.

TODAY’S TEMPLE TRIVIA ANSWER: The original home to Marek Drug was the Professional Building, which is currently being developed into an apartment community.