| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Mollie |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 06:44:56 AM
Anyone remember going to "town" in the 40's, 50's or 60's to the "Department Stores"? When the wheat money would come in we went to Wichita to buy school clothes or just "look". Buck's was a big old department store on the corner of Douglas and Broadway. It had dark wood and big windows decorated at Christmas with mechanical scenes. There was a bank of 4 elevators at the back of the store with a lady elevator operator, the doors were beautiful and then she would open them to reveal a cage that she pulled back so you could enter the elevator, she would also call out the different floors. I remember the women's hose department, the nylons were in little stacked thin boxes behind a glass counter. You had to ask the saleslady and she would take a box out, open it and put the nylon over her hand so you could see the color. There was a huge ladies "lounge/restroom" with large overstuffed chairs and sofas and an attendant there. There was another big department store called Innes, it was really expensive and had a tearoom. There was also JCPenney's, Sears and "Monkey Wards". Oh, remember going to the shoe store and they had a machine like an X-ray for your feet to see if your shoes fit? What big cities did you go to and do you remember the stores there? Mollie |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Aug 23 2005 : 7:44:32 PM
Linda - my son-in-law spent a good part of his childhood in Kinder, LA. His father was a pastor there! They lived in an old house, and he has fond memories of his time there. Small world!
Your memories of Kinder are fascinating to read! I really felt I was there with you. I will have to tell my SIL about them!
jpbluesky
heartland girl |
| Linda Houston |
Posted - Aug 23 2005 : 7:14:16 PM
Does this ever bring back memories...I grew up in Kinder, Louisiana with a pop of about 1000 ( I think that was stretching it ) On Saturday we would go to town (down towm that is) One street--We would gather at the movie theater --movies were .10 , while we watched the movies, our parents would be on main street with the other country folks and visit. Afterwards, we would get a cherry coke at the soda fountain and then go to Bells' Dry Goods and Grocery Store.
At Mr. Bell's the beans, rice and several staples were in big barrels and he would scoop it out for us. Come school time, my mother would buy Dan River Cotten for my dresses and I would feel so dressed up in my fine clothes. That grocery store was not at all big, but I loved the smell and all the people we would see. We would charge everything and when Dad's crop (Rice) came in , he'd go pay our bill.
When we purchased a car (before that we just had Dad's farm truck ) we would take a day trip to Lake Charles, which was about 30 miles away. I could not sleep the night before because I was so excited to go to the city. We would leave around 7:30 AM and arrive at 9 AM. Our first stop was at a department store named Mullers. We did not have much money, but I had such fun looking at what everyone was wearing and buying.
On the corner across from Mullers was a Woolworth's Ten cent store. I loved that store....it had a soda fountain and all kinds of cosmetics. I would always have a quater or fifty cents and shop. Futhrer down was Bakers Shoe Store and that is where I would purchase school shoe and a pair of dress shoes for church.
These three stores no longer exist in Kinder and Lake Charles, but the memory of times gone by can never be torn down and replaced with the modern version.
Linda
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| therusticcottage |
Posted - Aug 23 2005 : 2:48:40 PM
JP -- I don't remember Mary Fox but we may not have worked together. I really liked working at Myers Brothers, especially since I got such a huge discount on clothes. Missy was going into kindergarten when I worked there and she was the best dressed kid in school! I got married to my first husband in Girard, IL.
"If you are lucky enough to have a garden, you are lucky enough!" |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 1:14:04 PM
Holly - in my garage I have a glass sign, backed with red velveteen and in gold letters it reads "McCrory's". When our local store closed down in 1975 or so, I found that sign from their window lying on the sidewalk and took it home. Memories!
jpbluesky
heartland girl |
| ArmyWifey |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 12:01:27 PM
We used to go to Roscoe drugs with my grandmother (5&10), and TG &Y or McCrory's(Think that's the right spelling) just to look and buy little things. I liked WoolWorth's too!
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
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| KarenP |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 11:38:22 AM
We had a Schultz Bros, a Woolworths, JC Penney and Herbergers.
My favorite as a kid was Schultz Bros as they had alot kid & crafty things you could get for a little money (AKA made in Japan)
JC Penney's had lots of fabric and I always enjoyed that.
If you went 12 miles to Eau Claire, there was the CO-OP. WOW what a place.
From groceries to funiture and automotive it had everything!
KarenP
"Purest Spring Water in the World" |
| lareyna |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 10:18:02 AM
When I was a child my mother sat us down with the Sears catalog in the summer and we got to circle 5 dresses we liked and she made them for us,,,,,,,,without a pattern. There were 10 of us and I didn't have "storebought" until highschool when I got my first job lol |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 09:45:50 AM
Oh my gosh, Kay! I bet we know some of the same people! My best friend's mother worked there all her life and was in the children's department for awhile. Her name was Mary Fox. I grew up in Springfield and got my wedding things at Bressmer's. I had my dress made, but got my silver and china at Bressmer's. Rolands had beautfiul wedding dresses. Where was your wedding?
jpbluesky
heartland girl |
| therusticcottage |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 09:39:24 AM
JP -- I read through the past posts about you shopping in Springfield, IL at Myers Brothers. I worked there in 1975 through 1976 in the children's clothing department. It was a great store -- too bad it's not around anymore. And Rolands was a place I loved to shop too. In fact, I got my wedding dress at Rolands in 1969!
"If you are lucky enough to have a garden, you are lucky enough!" |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 06:30:58 AM
When I was ninteen I went to St. Louis at Christmas time and shopped the downtown stores at night. The windows were fairylands of moving figurines and holiday scenes. It was fascinating!
jpbluesky
heartland girl |
| lirene |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 12:01:25 AM
What I remember was the first escalator I rode on -- I was thrilled and terrified all at once. And near the top of the escalator there was a washing machine splashing away, the water full of poker chips! I think it was to demonstrate the agitator, but to a little girl it just looked awesome.
But department stores aren't totally extinct! We lived in Japan for six years and they still have department stores, several stories, with lady elevator operators, and actual departments. They even have apron departments!
lirene
Trillium Woods
Latitude 46.905, Longitude -122.316 |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Jun 23 2005 : 08:27:55 AM
You girls sure send me down Memory lane... When my sis and I were small Mom would take us to the Sears store to "look" at appliances and nearby were all the TV's. There would be a dozen scruffy, hot little kids sprawled on the carpet watching the TV while Moms were shopping. Ahhh the 60's.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb101.html |
| bramble |
Posted - Jun 23 2005 : 08:23:34 AM
I remember begging to stand in the dairy aisle while Mom shopped when we were small because it was always freezing in the summer. As if we could soak up that cold and take it out into the heat with us! I also remember an awful lot of families "visited" the appliance store because it was one of the few places air conditioned when I was really small( early 60's). Our next door neighbors were regulars! The first time they invited me with them I came back and my Mom asked "What did they buy there? and I answered "They don't buy anything, they just use the air conditioning and watch the TVs!" I guess there were some red faces but it didn't seem to deter them!
with a happy heart |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Jun 23 2005 : 08:21:07 AM
JP, I remember Villager clothes! They were really classic and pretty. I remember the ads for them in Seventeen magazine.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb101.html |
| Mollie |
Posted - Jun 23 2005 : 07:35:17 AM
Funny, but I can't remember when the "stores" got air-conditioned. But I remember when we "finally" got it at home. My Dad just hated the heat and longed to be cool (Mother never liked the air-conditioning, she would turn it off as soon as Daddy went outside). First we got what some would call a "cooler", a huge fan in a large metal box that was in the dining room window with water that circulated under the fan blades. It would sort of spit a fine mist of water in the room along with cooling. Later, Daddy bought an old window "real" air-conditioner from a guy he knew and he worked on it until it made the dining room like a freezer. Years went by and he was unhappy because to him the bedroom was still hot, so over the years he bought other used window air-conditioners and put one in the bedroom window and another in the living room window. Daddy came in the house about 5:30pm and mother knew to have those turned on max when he got there, it was so funny, here would be 100 degrees outside and mother wearing long sleeves and a sweater or jacket to cook dinner. Daddy and his "air-conditioners" always reminded me of Christmas story (the movie) and the guy with his "leg lamp". Mollie |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Jun 23 2005 : 06:39:09 AM
I remember the first air-conditioned stores in our area. Stores, cafes, and also motels had signs that advertised "It's Cool Inside" with a snowy little icicle on the word cool.
I , too, worked at a small clothing store as a teen. I got a 20% discount and spent all of it on Villager clothes. I did the fashion illustrations for the ads we put in the paper and got paid $5.00 per sketch! I thought I was rolling in dough!
jpbluesky
Heartland girl |
| Nana Naomi |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 9:48:09 PM
Howdy (again),
Anyone else remember the first grocery stores with air conditioning?
I remember how wonderful it was to go into Safeway BAREFOOTED in the summer! |
| bramble |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 4:13:53 PM
P.S. The very best part of working there was being allowed to go to the display Dept.'s auction for the "props" they used throughout the store! What fun and there were some really neat things that were never very expensive. My parents got a painted armoire that I now have and my favorite thing I ever got there was a big wagon wheel that looked like it had ridden cross country 150 years ago. I still remember my Dad picking me up and muttering to himself as he had to figure out how to get this giant wheel into our volkswagen square back! We ended up looking like some sort of helicopter with that thing strapped to the roof! I also still have a giant spool of thread and 5' high scissors that were from the fabric department when it closed. All the money got donated to an employee chosen charity so you were inclined to buy things knowing that.
with a happy heart |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 4:13:22 PM
Lucky you Bramble! I am glad I stuck to babysitting at that age or I would still be paying off clothes I wanted to purchase. YIKES!! Temptation would have been too much. I remember I was buying a school outfit that first time at Macys and it was a vinyl light colored leather looking jumper. Even if I wore the thing in 20 below temps in January I would sweat like a horse and die from the heat. Bad purchase. Something a 12 year old girl going into junior high wanting to look "groovy" would pick out!
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb101.html |
| bramble |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 3:46:29 PM
Meadowlark--I had to laugh at your mention of Macy's. That was my first "real" job at 15 1/2! They were still called Bamberger's in our area and I worked in Jrs., teenager mecca! Needless to say with a 20% discount on everything (including sales) we spent part of every paycheck shopping in our own department! Funny how I walk through now and it doesn't seem nearly as glamourous!
Clare- I'm with you on the catalog shopping! I think it was good I was cured of being a shopaholic early on! (My exception to this now is thrift, antique, book and fabric stores!) After 5 1/2 years there I never wanted to go to the Mall ever again! But it was a great job while in HS and college!
with a happy heart |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 12:23:24 PM
My big city shopping was in Springfield, Illinois. Our 3 large department stores were locally owned and were named Myers Brothers, Bressmer's and Roland's. They, too, had elevator operators, and everyone got to know them over the years, but they still would not chat with you.
The stores were all located around the square where the courhouse was in which Lincoln had law offices ( a little before my time, though!). I loved to walk the square at Christmas and see all the window decorations, get really cold, and also have to be careful not to slip on any icy patches on the sidewalks. When we got really cold we stopped at Steak and Shake for hot chocolate.
Myers Brothers and Bressmer's had tea rooms for ladies to have lunch in the afternoon, and the restrooms were bigger than our house! They were very fancy in my mind!
We only bought clothes three times a year. September, Christmas, and Easter. That was it! My mom made a lot of our clothes and bought us a ton at Christmas, and I loved going back to school in January - I could usually go two weeks with a new outfit each day. We were not rich, far from it, but we certainly had it all.
jpbluesky
Heartland girl |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 10:33:54 AM
Mollie, I live in Kansas...where did you have your wheat farm? I remember going to the big city of Wichita. It was rare, but what a special treat. Both of my parents lived there for a while in the 50'so they were acquainted with it. My first real shopping was in the late 60's as a junior high fashionista. Macy's is where I landed in downtown. It was the summer of '68 and everything was the coming presidental election with posters and banners and workers handing out leaflets in front of the store. I must have been pretty wide eyed then. I felt os special the older campaign workers would have given a 12 year old election brochures. I was pumped before I even hit the doors of Macys. When I walked in it was lile a cathedral of cosmetics! Chandeliers, old oak display cases brimming with the latest mod looks in makeup. Lovely ladies with samples of perfumes...got my first wiff of Chanel NO.5. I was in pre-teen heaven! There was nothing like this in Salina. There was a nice department store downtown, 3 floors and an elevator, and one makeup counter that sold Estee Lauder. But after going to Macys the first time in Wichita, nothing measured up until Kansas City in the 70's!
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb101.html |
| Clare |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 09:59:43 AM
I'm with you Mary... we were also waaaay country... Sears and Monkey Wards catalogs were our standard. A splurge was driving to the town that was 12 miles away to JCPenney. And in my teens when we moved, we were 25 miles from town, so you really plan ahead... and none of these towns were exactly shopping mecas!! Times have changed, haven't they? Ya know, I think that is why I still prefer catalog shopping. I am not a "let's go shopping" kind of gal... I'm more like a man in that respect. Go in- get what you need- get out!!!
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
| Nana Naomi |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 09:53:18 AM
Howdy!
Boy! You all were big city! When I was growing up in Redland, Texas, we used the Sears catalogue ! My mother even ordered her Chihuahua from Sears. We had that dog for 16 years until he got into a neighbors' yard with a female in heat and a jealous male. We like to think that he died of a heart attack before ... Well, we don't like to think about that.
The big treat was going to Lufkin for a cherry coke , at a real soda shop. |
| bramble |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 09:17:04 AM
I loved to go on the big back to school trip! If you really wanted a department store (other than Sears) you went to Philadelphia where there was Gimbels, Lit Bros., Wanamakers and Strawbridge & Clothier to name a few.I loved Wanamakers because they had a very grand lobby with an enormous crystal chandelier and some one who played the grand piano. I could have stayed there all day! There was a tea room for lunch that msde you feel like the Grand Duchess herself! At Christmas they had these very elaborate scenes in each window with these mechanized figures that skated, danced, elves that worked on toys, etc. To a little kid with a wild imagination it was a dream come true. It took us an hour + to get there by train, or 45 min. by car so for us it was an EVENT! The other place that was so cool to go to when you were in the city was Horn & Hardart. Does anyone remember them? They were an "automat" that had food cafeteria style before there really was cafeteria style and you opened these little windows to remove your selections. As a kid it seemed space age!To our parents it was probably the cheapest lunch around for a $$$ trip to the city!
We had Montgomery Ward, Robert Hall, Ej Korvettes and Two Guys in the days before KMart and WalMart but they were not the same!
We had a chance to go at Christmas a few years ago to NYC and see the store windows and the Rockettes and it reminded me of those days when I was small. We ate at the Russian Tea Room and the best part for my son was going to FAO Schwartz toy store and the MEGA ToysRus. It was interesting to see how different window display has come .
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
with a happy heart |
