A Brookline icon is gone

Such a sweet grandma. I used to live nearby, bought many funny little toys and knicknacks there for the kids over the years.

More recently, I made two different kinds of homemade bitters as Christmas gifts for friends and family, wanted to make a label for each that looked like an old-fashioned patent-medicine snake-oil cure, "Dr. MC's Brain Tonic" kind of thing. Fabricated a costume out of duct tape and cardboard and tinfoil and such for the label photographs: lab coat, head lamp, stethoscope: think a doctor on "The Knick", but sleazier. Realized I needed a good Victorian mustache.

Had a hunch that her shop would have what I needed, was not disappointed. Got a slate of stick-on mustachios for, I think, three bucks. Just the touch my bottles of homemade amari needed. Had a laugh with her explaining my intentions.

A lovely old soul. They ain't making 'em like that anymore. RIP.

We bow our heads and display our feathers in honor of a beloved fixture of the community whose kindness bettered our ancestral homeland for a century.

Crossed the border many times to buy tchotchkes at Irving's for kid parties and camp care packages. That plus, penny candy and Ethel always made it a worthwhile trip.

Picture and Globe story... https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/12/12/ethel...

Anyone else interested in continuing Irving's Toy and Card Shop?... What will happen to the shop?

By Steve Burns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQHcYuXGzJA