It was a wonderful summer day when the magic catalog would arrive in the mail. That day gave me six months of inspiration before my next birthday. When my birthday came around in December, Dad would put in $10--a lot of money in those days!--and I would contribute what was left of my grass cutting money, and off we would go to Howard's Fun Shop."

On one trip to the Fun Shop, Dad and I spied a small Chinese production box with a trick door in the back. Dad took the idea back to South Houston where he and our neighbor built one from plywood--a marvelous 18" tall
version of the 6" box that we couldn't afford from the Fun Shop.
Grimes performed at Lions Clubs and Rotary Clubs in Pasadena and
Southwest Houston during high school and took his growing bag
of tricks off to college in 1962 when he entered Austin College
(Sherman, Texas).