By LYNN STEINBERG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

When Adelia Rickert moved to Greenwood 10 years ago, she was a single parent with a 2-year-old son, looking for a way to earn a living. She had been a pyschotherapist in Chicago, but was hoping to pursue something different, something that would allow her more time to be with her son.

"I'd been very much looking forward to parenthood," she says, "and I didn't want to miss anything."

So she decided to go into business for herself. She considered, then dismissed, the idea of a doughnut shop. A toy store seemed as if it would be more fun.

She set up shop in a little storefront along Northwest 85th Street and called her new venture Top Ten Toys. She brought her son to work with her each morning and closed up shop during his naptime, between noon and 2 p.m.

In some ways, she says, the store was a selfish pursuit that allowed her to discover new things she and Michael could enjoy together. She was always on the lookout for toys that encouraged expression and creativity.

It wasn't long before the store earned a loyal following, both in and out of the neighborhood, and Rickert had trouble keeping merchandise on the shelves. Her store was only 1,000 square feet, and much of that space was for storage. There was room enough to put only one of everything out. So at the end of the day, all the merchandise that was sold had to be replenished.

About two years after she opened, she moved across the street, next to the Blockbuster Video, in a space that is seven times the size of her original shop.

She still refuses to stock war toys ("They're overemphasized in our culture," she says) or Barbie dolls ("It's not healthy to have real skinny dolls"). But there is a good selection of other dolls, in addition to arts and crafts sets, science kits, books, puzzles, wooden blocks, trains and musical instruments.

And perhaps the most popular feature of all: a toy castle that children can climb in while their parents comb the shelves.

Marlene Hall and her husband, Gabriel Ramirez, also started small when they opened their first business on North 85th Street after moving here from Hawaii.

They called their restaurant Gorditos, a backhanded tribute to their 10-year-old son Shannon, and they served up healthy Mexican food in a space so modest it could accommodate only six tables.

Last year, Gorditos moved to more spacious digs across the street, but there are still lines that stretch from the cash register, where Hall greets and chats with all the regulars, clear out the door.

"This is like a small town in the middle of the city," Hall says of the neighborhood where she does business. "I have to watch what I buy at the market and how I behave in public."

Over the years, many people and businesses have come and gone, but it has been gradual, and old-timers say slow change is sometimes hard to notice.

In place of the gem shop, at the corner of North 80th and Greenwood, is the popular Diva Espresso Bar.

Where pianos and organs were once sold, you can now brew your own beer.

The old Presbyterian church on Northwest 83rd is now the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism where part of the movie "The Little Buddha" was filmed.

In a tiny space at the corner of 84th and Greenwood -- which in previous incarnations was a consignment store and a tanning salon -- proprietor Russ Kammerer taps out a beat on a conga drum as he talks about the business he opened 14 months ago.

Dressed in black from head to toe, a silver hoop through his left ear, Kammerer can't seem to stop moving his hands -- to hold a conversation without a beat to back him up.

"I play drums," he says. Whap, whappity, whap. "I teach drums." Whap, whap. "I make drums."

Vintage sets are his speciality. He runs his fingers across the top of a mint-condition Rogers, made in 1964 and priced at $1,000.

"It's beautiful, man," he says. "You can't get this kind of workmanship anymore. They were around so much when I was a kid, but the new generation, it's all new to them. And there's plenty of room for more drummers."