‘Tommy the Toy Doctor’ Plays Several Roles in Life, and Enjoys Them All

Tom P. Welter, 52, relishes having a fun life, and no wonder. He has spent 30 years of it fixing and playing with toys.

“I enjoy it and enjoy life,” said the man known around Orange County as “Tommy the Toy Doctor.” He even carries a little black bag to his job at Toy City, where he repairs items for the store.

Clearly, the young Welter was impressed by a couple of presents he got one Christmas from a rich uncle (“the one with a job,” he said jokingly). “He got me a chemistry set and a wood burning set, and he told my parents: ‘Well, if he doesn’t blow up the house, he’ll burn it down.’ ”

Neither happened. “Both of them were excellent toys,” Welter said. Unlike the toys of today, which, he believes, are not very stimulating.

Welter, a Korean War Air Force veteran who has never married, said: “If I had kids, I probably wouldn’t buy many toys for them. Most of the toys don’t appeal to a child’s imagination except for things like construction kits and jigsaw puzzles.”

He illustrates his point about old and new toys by drawing an analogy between listening to old-time radio programs and watching television. “Radio is the theater of the mind; you use your imagination. But in television, you just sit there and look at it.”

Actually, Welter himself likes to perform--even on TV. He appeared twice recently as a contestant on “Jeopardy,” in its third annual Seniors Tournament. (He won the first round but was eliminated in the second.)

“I read a great deal and have a retentive mind, especially for sports, history, old movies and old radio shows. People use me as a reference source, “ he said. Indeed, he is a baseball fan who collects cards.

He also appeared once on an amateur talent show, where he performed as a comedian. He bombed, he said.

His love for laughs, though, shouldn’t lead people to think he doesn’t enjoy exercising his mind. “Hey, I’m a short, chubby person who clowns around a great deal,” he said, and “people sometimes get the impression I’m a clown and have mothing behind the facade.”

It is apparent that there is more to him than that. He loves children, he said, even though he never married.

“I’m either lucky or smart. I had a sweetheart once, and no one ever measured up to her. I enjoy the single life.”

While Cypress was having its Community Festival recently, some people were thinking that the community that began as a dairy town in 1956 could use a new image on its logo.

“People new to our community were wondering why a cow was in the logo since we didn’t have any cows in town,” said Phyllis Scott, director of promotions and marketing for the Cypress Recreation and Park District. “It got big enough that a vote was taken at this year’s festival.”

And 726 of the 786 voters said they wanted the cow--sometimes shown sporting a pair of sunglasses--to stay.

Apparently, Scott said, the locals are attached to this symbol of their town’s origin.

Why does the cow wear sunglasses? “We’re Southern California; we have to keep up with the times.”

Pearl Armstrong, 87, of Corona del Mar, is a no shrinking violet. She is a volunteer at the Oasis Senior Citizens Center there, tends a rose garden at her home and takes creative writing classes.

She expresses her love for her pursuits in this message:

The roses in my garden talk to me.

They tell me when to feed and water them.

When I look at them they tell me to

inhale the fragrance and enjoy their beauty.

I listen, and a feeling of love warms my heart.

I am thankful for nature’s gifts.