“When I was a little girl, my father would take me every Saturday to our neighborhood toy store and buy me something. I was a tomboy so I almost always chose a Pinky ball. I knew that that ball would bring the two of us together as we played catch in the front of our house for hours on end. I lost my dad the year I became a teenager.
My business partner Linda also lost her father when she was in her early teens. For each of us, it was a defining moment in our lives. As the youngest in each of our families, our relationship with our fathers was pure mutual adoration. Linda’s father was an accomplished artist, so it’s clear that’s where her creativity and talents come from. My father loved kids. He would pile my sibs and me, along with some neighborhood friends in his work van and take us all for ice cream.
For Linda and I, owning Auntie Penny gives us the opportunity to revisit that time in our lives when our fathers were present, loving and protecting us, a time when nothing was better than a trip to the toy store with your dad.
For me, every day is like those Saturdays long ago. And yes, we sell Pinky balls. In fact, we’ll be giving out free Pinky balls to the first 25 kids who come in with their dads on the Saturday before Father’s Day!”
