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Santa’s helper busy in Loomis workshop
by Jennifer Chick

Santa has a little extra help this Christmas from the hands of toyman Bob Pafford.

Pafford, 71, has been tinkering with toys and other wooden furniture for more than 15 years. He started when health concerns kept him from working at his longtime career as a mechanic. With help from the Easter Seals, he attended workshops that taught him basic woodworking skills and the hobby whittled its way into a small business. He picked up his nickname, Toyman, from the workshop and used it to create his business name, Toyman’s Toys, Wood Work 4 U.

“It’s kind of a grace that I can get out and get away to be able to do something I love,” Pafford said. “It’s keeping my hands busy, and I love it. I love working with wood. I love the smell of the wood.”

“I love this little town”

From his workshop on Loomis’ main street, Pafford turns out sturdy wooden coupes, precise little trains, doll beds, rocking horses and toy trucks, along with handy items like shelves, magazine and spice racks and tiny table-and-chair sets. His shop has been open about one year and Pafford loves the location. As children walk home from school, they often stop to peer in his window at the latest toys.

“I love this little town,” Pafford said. “It’s a friendly little town and I’d love to stay right here in this.”

Pafford, whose resemblance to Santa is further defined by his twinkling eyes and curly gray hair, lights up as he talks about the delight he gets from watching children play with his handmade toys. Although his toys are made to last, he doesn’t make them to sit on shelves as collectibles. He wants children to expand their imaginations through the process of scooting a truck across the floor or chugging a train up and down the carpet. At the recent Bertrand Craft Fair, he enjoyed watching the young attendees investigate his toys.

“I love watching their eyes, the expression on their faces when they see them,” Pafford said.

Built for future generations

With 25 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, Pafford is focused on all the little details that create a toy both parents and children can enjoy for generations to come. He doesn’t paint or stain his toys as he is well aware little fingers often take toys straight to mouths, and he patiently hand sands all surfaces to make them satin-smooth.

“With that many kids, you are always looking at what is going to pinch their fingers or break off and scratch them,” he said.

Pafford’s wife, Donna, crochets blankets to go on the doll beds and potholders to go with Pafford’s kitchen items. Pafford also crochets and helps make items. His son, Rob Pafford, Jr., 34, is picking up the trade from his dad and works in the toyshop when time allows.

A master of resourcefulness

A master of resourcefulness, Pafford is adept at taking scraps of wood that would otherwise be thrown out, like pine pallets or the cut outs from countertops, and turning them into treasures. He also takes patterns and transforms them into new ideas.

“That’s what makes it so fun,” he said. “You can do so much with wood. You can take one pattern and change it and have something completely different.”

Whether it is building little red wagon replicas for a customer and his friends or creating shelves for more storage in space-crunched apartments, Pafford’s customers and their stories inspire him to try new projects. He also takes old furniture or items and restores them, like an old ice box that he recently repaired, much to the delight of the ice box’s owner.

“He was just tickled to death with it, and I had a ball with it,” Pafford said. “I love the challenge of something like that.”

It might take him several months, but he is meticulous in his detail and has satisfied customers to prove it.

A cure for boredom

He doesn’t really think of Toyman’s Toy as a business, but more of a way to stem boredom in retirement.

“I just can’t sit around,” Pafford said. “It drives me right up the wall when I get sick and I can’t get out and do something. I don’t feel like it’s time to sit down and watch TV and do nothing.”

So instead he tinkers with toys. He creates and shapes, coaxing new toys from discarded bits and pieces. And along the way, he enjoys the delight on a child’s face, the thanks of a new-found friend. That’s what keeps him going.

“I hope I can stay right here and just keep on working,” he said.

Jennifer Chick is a freelance writer living in Holdrege, Nebraska. In addition to work for a wide variety of clients, she is a regional correspondent for the Kearney Hub. You can write to her at tjchick@q.com.

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