The day after Thanksgiving 1944. We had gone to my grandmother's.

[Cleita]

We had been stuffed with turkey she had raised and killed herself and homemade pumpkin pie. World War II was still raging and the family had pooled their ration coupons for the fixings. Other families, who hadn't raised their own turkeys went to the butcher shop that had live turkeys. They could pick one out and take it home and kill and dress it themselves or pay extra to the butcher to do it for you. Butterball was a gleam in an entrepreneur's eye then.

However, this is about the day after or maybe a few days after. I don't remember. I wasn't quite five yet. My mother, the ultimate window shopper, and I would hop on the street car to downtown Los Angeles. There were about five high end department stores then and they would have dressed their windows with Christmas displays, many of them animatronic. There was no Black Friday or deals. This was one time of the year there were no sales until after Christmas. Also being war time there was a shortage of goods to be bought. All the streets and stores were bright with decorations and lights though even if goods were spare.

In my family most gifts were handmade anyway. Lovely quilts, knit sweaters for the men for instance. I still have a lovely crocheted bedspread my aunt gifted my mother with. Her husband, my uncle, a machinist made me a pair of roller skates. The factories that made them had stopped production to make war goods. The purpose of this trip, of course, was to see the department store Santa and to enjoy the decorations and festive atmosphere of the season. All the sales were after Christmas especially in January.

I guess the reason, I'm wallowing in nostalgia is I miss those days when there were vibrant down towns with mom and pop stores all trying to out do each other. The biggest stores were the department stores. There were no malls or big box stores with their generic goods and ho hum service. When you shopped back then you were taken care of by an attentive sales staff who would try to find you just the thing you were looking for.

The department stores offerings ranged from the pricey to the bargain basement catering to all incomes. But whether you shopped in the basement or the more expensive departments you got the same attentive service. You could get a charge card or do lay away, but you weren't robbed blind with the usury interest rates of today. Most importantly we weren't battered with the relentless advertising we get today. That was the purpose of the window displays and downtown decorations to entice you to buy when you were ready to shop not to be annoyed endlessly about it.

Memories!

[livetohike]

1. Thanks for sharing your memories Cleita. I grew up in the

50's and my memories of going to downtown Pittsburgh (on the streetcar) with my Grandma are the same. I loved the window displays .

[Cleita]

2. You're welcome.

I believe there is a better way to celebrate the holiday season. We did it in the past and I think we can do better in the future.

[loudsue]

29. I agree. And, as kids, we didn't get gobs & gobs of junk toys. We usually got a toy or two, and

slippers, pj's,....stuff we were going to need for the year to come. We didn't have much, and if we really really wanted something, we saved up our allowance, gift money, tooth fairy money.....sometimes for a year or two, and then we'd finally buy what it was we really wanted.

We didn't have a closet full of junk we never wore....we only had a few dresses and skirts for school, because, back then, girls weren't allowed to wear slacks to school. And we all wore hand-me-downs from sisters or cousins.

But Christmas was always a time of shared experience and going around seeing the neighborhoods that could afford decorations. Most houses did not decorate, except maybe a wreath, and some luminarios that the kids would put out on Christmas eve.

Just this year, I think I have convinced the better part of our family to stop the buying madness. We don't NEED anything. Food on the table, a job, our animals, our loved ones/friends, our books & music. No more STUFF.

[DesertFlower]

54. exactly. nt

[llmart]

14. Same here......

only downtown Cleveland. Picture "The Christmas Story". I don't ever remember being cold standing outside the amazing displays in the department stores just wishing Santa would bring you whatever you saw in the window.

Ah, it's good to wallow in nostalgia once in awhile. I can't imagine the kids of today growing up to be in their senior years waxing nostalgic about all the crap they got from China.

[awoke_in_2003]

43. The sidewalks around the square...

are steamed heated, so if wouldn't have been too bad looking in the window of Higbees (remember that name?). I still remember when Higbees was decorated for the filming of the Santa scene in A Christmas Story

[llmart]

61. Oh, yes, I sure do remember Higbees.....

and Halle Bros., and May Company and who can forget the amazing tree in Sterling Lindner?

[awoke_in_2003]

63. Yep to all...

My favorite things about downtown were the library and the Arcade. Oh, and I always got a hot dog, always from the same vendor.

[aggiesal]

47. I love 'A Christmas Story' . . .

Although the movie was filmed in Cleveland, the setting was in
Hammond, IN, where I grew up. The author of the story also
grew up in Hammond, and the movie made references to Hohman;
there is a street named Hohman Ave. in Hammond, also mention
"down in Griffith", and Chicago with the Bears/Packers game.

Hammond had a store in downtown called Goldblatt's similar to
Higbee's in the movie. it took up a whole city block.
The whole street level facade was display windows where it seemed
like every department had there own window to dress up.
This was back in the 60's & 70's, and there was no concept of malls
or shopping centers. I left in 1980 just as malls were being introduced,
and never looked back. I have no idea how downtown is today.

[NJCher]

57. just you wait!

I can't imagine the kids of today growing up to be in their senior years waxing nostalgic about all the crap they got from China.

Ahhh, but you have no idea of what fresh new hell global capitalism will bring us. I can scarcely imagine it myself, but I'm sure it will make cheap crap from China look like TinkerToys and Roy Rogers lunchboxes.

However, I digress from this lovely topic.


Cher

[Divernan]

26. Horne's Christmas windows were the best, and they had 19th century, costumed carollers

walking through the departments, serenading the shoppers, and a huge Christmas tree.

The Horne's Tree

The lighting of the Horne's Christmas tree at the flagship store was a long-held holiday season tradition. The 6 story electric tree would be placed on the corner of the building at Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street. People would crowd the corner for a show and the lighting. The tree is still displayed annually in the tradition of Pittsburgh's Light Up Night at the Horne's building. Crowds in the past also eagerly awaited the Christmas window displays at Horne's, once part of the high competition amo

ng Pittsburgh's downtown stores for the attention of the Light Up Night visitors.

http://fatherpitt.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/the-hornes-christmas-tree/

[Cleita]

27. Don't think you'll see that at WalMart or Target. n/t

[mitchtv]

3. I was born Dec'44

I am still old enough to remember when John Wananmaker's still had a NY presence. They had a monorail all around the ceiling of the store, of course , Santa was also at Gimbels, Macy's too. also downtown was A&S S Klein on the Sq. Union Square, for the less affluent or label conscious.An hour on the IRT and we were getting off at our decorated neighborhoods, where the local merchants knew us, and we knew them.
Cleita, i put this memory out there .Did you have a Christmas Club at the local bank?

[Cleita]

5. I didn't have a Christmas club but many family members did.

Often it wasn't even used for Christmas but home improvement projects.

[DesertFlower]

23. i was born 10/41 in queens, ny. i remember those stores too.

my mom used to take me on the bus to downtown brooklyn where we shopped at loesers, mays and a few other stores. we couldn't afford A&S. many times we stopped for a hot dog at one of the open air hot dog stands. those hot dogs were great.

as soon as i was old enough i had a christmas club. i used my .50 allowance. my grandmother used to take it to the bank for me. even after i married my first husband i had a christmas club account. we also used lay away plans.

[loudsue]

34. Our savings accounts paid 5% for the entire first part of my life. It was a standard rate for

your savings account, and it didn't matter how small the deposit was, they registered it in your passbook. I think I got my first passbook when I was 8, and kept it until I was about 21 or 22.

And, yes! Lay away! Finally getting your coat out of lay away in time for winter was always great!

[DesertFlower]

39. wouldn't it be nice to get 5 percent now?

[druidqueen]

62. Born in April, '47

Born & raised in Manhattan. I remember all those stores you mentioned & going "downtown" to see the beautiful store windows....I still have several pictures of myself with Santa at Gimbels. By the time I was 10 I was allowed to take the subway downtown for a dime by myself...a friend & I would meet at the tree, go to Radio City & buy our tickets for the movie AND the stage show for 70 cents (as long as you bought them before noon), you could go to a later show. We would then got to Schrafts for lunch & then to see the show....

[spartan61]

4. Thanks for the memory.

I remember as a kid going to downtown Detroit with my dad on Thanksgiving Day to watch the J L Hudson Christmas parade. He would sit me on his shoulders so I could see everything. Then several weeks later my mom would take me downtown again to see the wonderful window displays that you described in your message. There was never any frantic shopping that you see today with Black Friday and now Black Thursday. I'm so glad I grew up in the USA in the "olden days."

[Cleita]

6. I know we can't go back but I think we could take some of

what is good about the old days and change what is happening today. I'm just appalled at all the Black Friday reports today, the arrests, the bad all around behavior and mostly the greed.

[loudsue]

35. Me, too, Cleita. The greed and junk-fever is pretty appalling.

It is really very sad.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

48. one thing I find helpful is not watching ANY teevee.

Movies once in awhile either streamed from Amazon or dvd rented from redbox or the library.

I'm so used to being teevee free that it's jarring when I do get exposed. Yecch!!!!!

Kill Your TV!!

[world wide wally]

7. It was the same in Chicago. Quite often we would go downtown just to look at the window displays.

But I guess the corporations' bottom lines are better these days and that's "progress"…. GAG!

[Cleita]

20. There isn't even any interest in doing something

for the community to enjoy. Those stores knew that most who enjoyed the displays were not going to shop in their store, but they did it for the season and the community.

[No Vested Interest]

8. Ah, yes, I remember it well. nt

[Archae]

9. Day after Thanksgiving in my family...

We'd drive from Howards Grove, (small town outside of Sheboygan in Wisconsin) to Pranges.
Pranges had the biggest building in town at that time, a multi-story store.

Their windows on the outside had animatronic displays of Santa, elves, children and animals.
Pranges is long gone, and now the Boston Store in that spot is going to close.

But the displays were salvaged by a group here in Sheboygan, refurbished and repaired, and now grace the basement of the Sheboygan Museum from November until January.

[KoKo]

13. Love it! Thanks for posting!

[Cleita]

19. Aww Archae! Thanks for these.

*sniff*

[Archae]

30. I figured you'd like those.

So many memories...

[MineralMan]

10. Good memories. I have those, too.

Thing was, though, the population was lower then, especially in Los Angeles. People still shopped downtown all across the country. All of that has changed, of course, as the populations of cities have exploded. Like you, I miss those downtown stores, but I don't expect to see such things ever again. That time was, and is gone. We have a new world to live in. Today, though, downtown in many places is host to small shops full of interesting things. It's still possible to shop there, except in the largest cities, and there's lots to see, including things you can't find at the mall. So, I still go downtown often, now here in St. Paul, MN. It's still fun.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Even in the '50s and early '60s the downtown stores

put up window displays for Christmas. I remember going downtown St. Paul with my parents to look at them, and then we'd drive around and look at all the lights. And the sales didn't start until January. Couldn't imagine the frenzied riots for sale items that sometimes take place now.

[Major Hogwash]

12. This is a great story. I can almost see Jimmy Stewart running down the street . . .

. . . yelling at the old Bailey Savings and Loan building!

[Frustratedlady]

16. I agree. Every time I see something about a bank being fined for

the manipulating they do these days, I think of Jimmy Stewart. I think the Baileys of today have gone too far to ever give up their power.

[JDPriestly]

15. Born 1943 here -- and I have some of the same memories.

Ayres in downtown Indianapolis here.

Since I live in Los Angeles, I know the buildings, the old Broadway, the Bullocks Wilshire on Wilshire (with the top floor tea room for fine ladies). Beautiful remnants of a past. The story of the US in the 1940s and 50s is a beautiful one. People were idealistic and struggled to make their dreams, not just the material ones, realities.

My family was/is very religious, so I have to add memories of Christmas music, pageants and of course the creches.

The McCarthy era brought a lot of cynicism and reflected the increasing materialism of the country.

[RBInMaine]

17. Many downtowns still actually have this. Mine does. It's nice.

[Cleita]

32. That's cool. Good to hear it. n/t

[Little Star]

18. Your grandmother and mine must have been cut from the same cloth....

Your story brought back many fine memories for me.

I know there were many, many things that were not great back then but there were some things that were wonderful. Thanks for the memories.

edit to add: I was born in 1946.

[Cleita]

31. She herself was raised on the farm back in the late Nineteenth century

so she was tough in that way.

[MADem]

21. There are trade-offs with progress....

Clothing was terribly expensive relative to income, then (which caused people to be frugal with their clothing and reuse/repurpose it- -of course, people had TIME to take Aunt Martha's old jacket and turn it into a winter coat for little Edna, e.g.). The pace of life was slower, there were less demands on people's time. No American Idol or other "must see (or not)" TV, no play dates, no emails, no message boards. There was no television, cancer was a death sentence, and if you weren't caucasian, at least in some cities, you weren't getting waited on in department stores by any attentive salespeople.

I think we'd all like to dial down the volume and speed of life, these days. Back then, we didn't have a choice--the speed was automatically set to slow. Now, we have to exercise a little personal self-discipline if we want to tune out/unplug/get away from it all.

[glowing]

22. This is how I grew up in VT. We would take one trip to the mall at somepoint between Thanksgiving

and X-mas (but it was never the day after). Even back then in the 80's and 90's my parents wouldn't think twice about doing the insanity of "Black Friday". When I was in college (late 90's/ early 00's), my sister would come down to my apt in my college town, and we would go shopping together before X-mas so we could pool our resources for our relatives (the next time we would see each other would be after our flights into Hartfor, CT for X-mas - she was in Charlotte, NC and I was in Myrtle Beach, SC). Even in those years, the after Thanksgiving sale day was an all day event. No one had to get up at 6am for the 6 items that are on mega discount.

I was also told that the electronic items, like TV's, that are on mega discount, have a different components in them that make them short lived. The salesman said they were likely to only last a year or 2 at the most. At one of the Walmart's in our area, the police had to be called out, the ad said if they were in line for the first hour, they would get the "coupons" to allow the people to buy at the sales price cut. They had people waiting for 3 or 4 hours in these lines, and then refused to hand out the "coupons" for price match in the future. Walmart truly sucks ass.

The craziness of the people who do the black friday (now Thursday) are insane. It takes a special type of crazed consumer to actually deal with that crap. AND if they had jobs that paid a living + wage, they wouldn't be lining up to get their kid that really cheap lap top or xbox or what not that they couldn't afford unless they got the item at super discount. If only those people who lined up at insane hours, punching one another out, focused their efforts and energies on making living and economic conditions better across America, we might be further ahead. Many of these insane idiots are some of the very same one's who vote for the likes of a Sarah Palin and believe they are "Godly" people... laughabale at best, just plain sad to me. Taking the Christmas out of Christmas. Perhaps it would be better if every news outlet didn't act like a sales pitch every 5 mins, talking about the deals and interviewing people in lines or in overstuffed parking lots.

[DesertFlower]

24. i don't remember thanksgiving '44. i was 3 years old.

my dad and most of my uncles were in the military. we lived with my grandparents even when dad came home from the navy. it was very hard to find apartments. my grandpa owned a bar and one of his customers owned a 4 family house. when there was a vacancy we were able to get it. it was only 5 houses away from my grandparents -- a cold water flat railroad room apartment. it was $21 a month.

[Cleita]

25. We were living with my grandmother and aunt and uncle because of the housing

shortage then, too.

[Warpy]

28. I remember being taken to various downtowns when I was a little kid

so we could look in the store windows at the various displays. My favorites were always the ones that featured electric trains going through little villages. The girly stuff left me cold, much to my mother's despair. I remember layaway instead of credit cards charging all kinds of interest and it was a much better system, cheaper also. I was delighted when some stores started to bring it back.

My parents had the first TV on the block so my mother could watch the McCarthy hearings, white knuckled and furious. However, they usually treated it like a radio, my mother doing needlework and my dad doing expense reports, completely ignoring the screen.

I think that's what made the most difference, TV. Most people are glued to the screen. Like my parents, I tend to listen to it more than watch, paying attention to my spinning while I pay attention to the story line. Once video entertainment was in the home, fewer people went out to movies and they became dating fare. Why go downtown to watch the Xmas parade when you know the best stuff will be on the late news at home? Why look in store windows when the TV brings shopping to you?

I imagine people will be nostalgic some days for the glory days of home based entertainment and store shelves full of cheap goods and limitless credit to buy it all with. I know my grandparents were a bit nostalgic for the silence of the days before radio when you heard your own thoughts instead of someone else's packaged thoughts.

It all depends on your timeline.

[mcp37]

33. Late to the party

I know that most posts are over with, but I wanted to say this. There are still great homemade gifts out there. My mother (60 yrs old this year) just completed a beautiful hand made quilt that she gave to me and my girlfriend. She sewed every stitch by hand and it took her three years to complete. I already considered it one of my most prized possessions. It is the third quilt I have from my mother. I wish everyone had something like this to have. I get a little teary thinking about it, and I am a strapping 37 year old man. But hey, who ever said a middle aged man can't love the things his mother makes for him!!!

[Cleita]

36. Welcome to DU

and thanks for telling us about your mother.

[japple]

68. Never too late for a post like yours. Welcome to DU, friend, and

thank you.

[ginnyinWI]

73. 37 is not middle aged!

You're just a kid! My eldest daughter is 39 and I still think of her as young. I'm your mother's age and I knit stuff for the family. But I also shop Amazon--lol. I made a quilt for each of the kids as wedding presents too. You want to give them something they'll remember.

[Paka]

37. Thank you for the lovely post.

The cities may be different, but the experiences are much the same. You and I are close in age and your trip down memory lane was very special. Merci!

[Suziq]

38. I have the fondest memories of those days

Born Brooklyn, New York in 1952. All the big department store were located on Fulton Street, known as downtown Brooklyn. My mother worked at A&S for 25 years, starting in the early 60's. Great discount on clothes for me as I entered my teenage years - yay! My dad piled me and my brother into the car to pick my mother up at work and to see the wonderful displays in all the windows at Christmas. Strings of lights were strung from one side of Fulton Street to the other and were especially beautiful if it was snowing. Got my first pair of ice skates on Fulton Street on a beautiful snowy night. I think it was 1966. Headed home and watched A Christmas Carol on our one and only black and white TV. Memories . . . . .

[DesertFlower]

55. i loved downtown brooklyn. when i was a kid we couldn'd

afford to shop at A&S. around '67 i was able to purchase a few things there, but i still shopped at mays and of course, in queens we had alexanders. loved that store.

[mitchtv]

67. Alexander's on Main Street

do you remember their predecessor Gertz on the same corner?

[madfloridian]

40. Thank you, Cleita, for this lovely post.

A lot of us here remember times like that. Simpler times. There's a lot to be said for times like that.

[Hekate]

41. Thanks, Cleita. You revive good memories with me too. nt

[babylonsister]

42. Thank you for

letting me wallow in your nostalgia, too. That was a great read.

[nikto]

44. Smoking a bowl of fine herb with friends and family...

And sharing some egg nog.


Happy Holidays!

And Merry Bud-Mas!

[eridani]

56. Now there's a plus for the 21st century--at least in CO and WA n/t

[Useless in FL]

45. I'm right there with you in your nostalgia....

I was born in 1945 and I remember when shopping downtown in a few department stores was the thing..... a visit to the city all lit up for the holiday and a visit to Santa in a department store was a must. We had very little but we were very happy to window shop and dream. One year I saved up a few precious dollars from making some knitted items assisted by my grandmother that I sold to some neighbors. I bought my Mother a pair of leather gloves and I bought my Dad a leather wallet. I was never so proud of those purchases..... Sweet memories of innocence gone by ...forever...

[MarianJack]

46. As a kid in the 60s, I remember the day after Thanksgiving as...

...ABC's Cartoon Jubilee followed by College Football.

My wife told me that the term "Blacl Friday" came from the fact that the day after Thanksgiving was the only day that the nuns were allowed to go Christmas shopping and, at the time, they wore black vestments.

It was many years later that the retailers decided to marginalize Thanksgiving in the service of sher fucking greed!

PEACE!

[aggiesal]

49. I thought that 'Black Friday' was . . .

based on the fact that most stores were losing money,
I.e. in the red, until the first day of Christmas shopping,
thus going from red to black.

[MarianJack]

51. Could be.

It'd make sense, although my wife has this uncredible habit of always being right. At least I say so...that's one of the reasons we've had nearly 16 (mostly) very happy years!

PEACE!

[aggiesal]

53. Here are some links.

http://www.ibtimes.com/why-black-friday-called-black-friday-how-day-after-thanksgiving-got-its-name-1487232

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/22/why_do_we_call_it_black_friday_newscred/

http://m.livescience.com/32862-how-did-black-friday-and-cyber-monday-get-their-names-.html

[Chipper Chat]

50. Thanksgiving of '44 was celebrated without the men of the family - still serving:

My dad in the army, my uncle Joe in the marines, and my soon-to-be uncle Jack in the Navy. I was 4 , had a brother 2, and a male cousin 1. We were the only men at the table since my grandpa worked on the Nickel Plate railroad and was rarely home holidays. I don't remember if we had turkey but I do remember the big bowl of mashed potatoes swimming in butter. I remember my aunt baking a cake and frosting it with added gum drops on top. She says she was going to mail it to Joe "overseas" and I was brainy enough to think "wow, it'll get mighty stale before he gets it." We had a big Philco radio with a switch that you could flip to get shortwave and police bands. Exciting. And on Saturday nights we all gathered around the radio to listen to "Your Hit Parade." It sounds ridiculous and dated but our hands would sweat waiting breathlessly for the announcement: "And now Lucky Strike presents ..the top 3 tunes of the week. In third place..Margaret Whiting singing the number 3 tune ...I Love You For Sentimental Reasons" - or so.
Of course we were all glad when "the men" came safely home from the war in 1945. My dad had this huge army duffel bag and it was full of presents for us all. ...Wow, it's amazing what you can remember if you put your mind to it.

[dem in texas]

52. Christmas 1944

I remember it well, I was five years old. My brother who was 6, was in the first grade at school. He came home from school and said there is no Santa Claus. I didn't believe him. That year, my uncle who was in the Army came home on leave. He was given my bed to sleep in and my mother put a cot up for me in the dinning room which opened into the living room. I decided to stay awake and see if Santa did come to our house. So I lay on the little cot and before long, I heard the front door open and someone come in, I couldn't see it was too dark. But I could hear him putting presents under the Christmas tree. There, that proves Santa is real, I thought. I was convinced and I fell asleep. It took me a couple of years to figure out that I had actually fallen asleep and dreamed it all.

We would get one toy such as a doll and something to wear, like a new pair of pajamas or new sweater. I still have a little green felt vest, all embroidered in a Mexican motif that my mother made for me for Christmas one year. Now is fist fights at Walmart, grab, pull, just get stuff, it is so sad to see.

[roody]

58. We went downtown Minneapolis

to Daytons. We never bought anything there except a photo with Santa.

[countryjake]

59. We never did it Thanksgiving weekend, but those window displays...

the elaborate fantasy moving xmas scenes, would always be a destination for our family at some point during the holiday season. We made the drive clear to downtown Dayton (more than an hour away) just to stand in front of the Rike's department store window, oohing and aawing at the cute little critters, elves, trains, or whatever else they came up with each year.

We seldom went inside the store (despite my older sister's begging to shop there) but instead would go down the street to the Kresge's or McCrory's dime store and sit at their lunch counter for a treat. I remember that my big brother would always get a lime phosphate, my sister a tiny stainless-steel bowl of orange sherbert, while I slurped down a chocolate malt (a real one). Our mother left us alone at that counter with our goodies while she shopped elsewhere in the store and my sister was the only one who would crane her neck, peering around to see which section our mom was in, worrying that HER gift might come from a five and dime...my brother and I would just endlessly spin our seats around, in between sips from our paper straws. After the treats were gone, she would make a beeline to our mother, my brother would head to the toys, and I always ended up in the back-end of the store, fascinated by the wall of budgies, fish, and other pets that were found there.

I do recall one year that I checked out the doll counter to see what a brand new Tiny Tears looked like. The beginning of television hype, that one, cause I saw it on tv. Ding Dong School and Miss Frances made this little wild farm girl want a doll that bawled, but I never got one.

This was all after those war years you remember...my sis and mother lived with my grandparents while my daddy was overseas, then my brother and I came soon after he returned. But that pilgrimage that my family made down to the big city each year, simply to peer into a fascinating store window, is definitely a memory that I hold dear.

I thank you for reminding me...what a nice thread you've created here!

[JNelson6563]

60. Have I got the place for you!

Try Traverse City, Michigan if you are longing for an old-fashioned, vibrant downtown scene! It's beautiful and there are many shops & restaurants and buying local is like a religion to some around here. We do have a couple of malls but downtown is where it's at!

Here's a lovely shot at night:

A quiet moment during a snowfall:



Everyone who comes marvels at our downtown because it is like how all downtowns used to be.

I cordially invite any and all DUers to come on up! It's lots of fun no matter the weather!

Julie

[northoftheborder]

65. downtown Christmas memories

This was in the mid to late forties: our hometown then, Austin, has a broad Congress Avenue which leads from one hill way south of the Colorado River, north to the other hill, where the Capitol is. This whole stretch of street was strung with lights from one side to another and driving from south to north to see this view was glorious to us at the time. We usually did this on Christmas Eve, Christmas night, or another night during the holiday; of course we also drove around to see the lights at individual houses and parks. This event was called "Seeing the Lights"! So naive in light of the extravagant and spectacular displays of today, in most yards, and cities.

I don't remember much about shopping before Christmas. The department stores downtown had interesting displays all year. I don't remember them being open at night at all. Most of our gifts to each other in the family were simple, home made, if possible, practical, and one or two special "Santa" presents. The merchandise inside the stores I remember as being mostly the usual merchandise, restrained decorations, and totally absent all the holiday stuff that is everywhere today. Certainly nothing made in China.

This was the era during which all public and private schools had a Christmas nativity pageant, and we learned all the carols by memory in music class. Our Christmas at home was all about Santa, the Tree, stockings hung, and gifts, what one would term "secular" today. We had no creches, and maybe only an angel or two on the tree. Funny how things change over time. We still don't emphasize it as a religious holiday, at home, and now the pageants are at church; but certainly we have more awareness of the opportunity to give to others in he community and de-emphasize our gifts to each other.

[tofuandbeer]

64. Shared on FB (if that's okay)

I absolutely LOVE this!
Thanks!

[bluestate10]

66. I wasn't around during WWII. I wasn't a hint of a gleam in who would become my

Daddy's eye at that time. But I remember the last days of Lay-away, merchants then allowed my Mom to select clothing and dry goods and those items were packaged and put away. My Mom would pay a little each week until the goods were paid for, then she took possession of the goods. Prices weren't jacked up, there was no interest of fees charged and then, everything bought was made in the USA. Now, Lay-away is making a comeback, but as just another interest rate based scheme for taking money out of the pockets of people who can least afford to have money taken from them. Gone are the days when a merchant looked at a poor family and decided on the spot to make a way for them to purchase some decent things for their lives, the merchant eventually sold the items, the poor family got a chance to keep a few precious dollars in their pockets.

[japple]

69. Thank you for this lovely, nostalgic thread, Cleita. It brought

tears to my eyes, dredged up forgotten memories, and made me thankful. Bless you.

[Lugnut]

70. I didn't arrive until September of 1945.

I remember going shopping with Mother in the small city nearby on a regular basis. The three department stores were owned and operated by local residents. Mother shopped a lot at her favorite store where the products were of very nice quality and stylish. I wore some pretty spiffy outfits when I was growing up.

There were all sorts of stores that offered various types of merchandise. The city was very busy on Saturdays as shoppers crowded the sidewalks. We'd usually have lunch at either the lunch counter at Kresge's 5 & 10 cent store or we'd walk to the Coney Island for hot dogs. Shopping day was a big deal that I always looked forward to.

The malls started opening when I was in my early 20s. I was married and had a baby boy when the first expanded strip mall opened. It was so convenient to have a grocery store, pharmacy, department store and other smaller specialty stores under one roof. A much bigger mall opened a few years later and the downtown started to die.

Downtown has never recovered.

[TNNurse]

71. I work in a hospital.

We expect to work holidays. I had made a few comments about stores open Thanksgiving Day. They apparently fell on deaf ears. People who HAD to work were headed out to make sure someone else did not have a day with family. I thought they of all people would understand. I was wrong, mistaken and sad. I am retiring next year, it was my last Thanksgiving to work. You can be sure that next year I will not be shopping. Apparently Thanksgiving really does not mean anything but overeating and shopping to many. I suspect most of them are Republicans who vote against their own best interests.

[littlewolf]

72. growing up on a farm in small town America

I never saw really fancy window dressings, until I was in the military and spent Christmas in HI, that was awesome! animatronic displays I was in awe
had never seen stuff like that. this was in the early 80's so yes there was black friday and all that went with it. but I had never seen anything like that before.
Growing up, we didn't raise Turkeys so we got ours from the butcher, already dressed. also usually had venison to go with it, veggies my mom
had either canned or frozen. fresh fruit usually (for the adults) kids got canned fruit cocktail.
and of course PIE .... apple with crumb topping was my favorite, with a piece of sharp cheddar hmmmmm.
grandma always made rhubarb pie also as a kid I never liked it, my dad would always say "good more for me." and give me a big grin.
I miss those days.