Thankful for Bricks-and-mortar Stores of Earlier Decades

 

A Month–Not Just a Day–of Thanks

 

Part 4.  Thankful for the Bricks-and-mortar Stores of Earlier Decades

 

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

 

 

On this Thanksgiving Eve of 2018 and in this fourth part of my 2018 WORDWALK series of “A Month–Not Just a Day–of Thanks,” I am not just thinking of good food and shopping, I am remembering the stores of Main Streets of small towns and larger cities around the United States.  If “Big-box stores” and shopping malls brought the demise of downtown stores along too many Main Streets, will online shopping eliminate a substantial number of big-box stores and shopping malls?  Is a land of only online shopping really what Americans want?  I hope not.

 

I fondly recall, in the 1950s and 1960s, walking down Main Street of Clinton, Indiana (then, with a population of approximately 7000), and looking in the shop windows.  Additionally, I remember the years when absolutely no store was open for business on Sundays; in those earlier decades, Sunday was a family day.  I am happy that for most of my life, no thought was given to any store being open on Thanksgiving Day; and I do hope that store owners come to their senses and return to a “Closed” sign for all of Thanksgiving Day in the near future.

 

Yes, I am thankful to have enjoyed the bricks-and mortar stores of my youth.  Clinton, seven miles from my hometown of Blanford, had a Main Street which was still bustling in the 1950s and 1960s.  When I was a child, I went shopping with my mother at Baker’s Dress Shop, where our cousin Martha Lanzone and her sister Gracie worked.  In this store, the display of many hats always caught my attention.

 

Walking north down the west side of Main Street, one would have encountered Rosenblatt’s–a department store with clothing for men, women, and children.  Throughout the years, this store did some changing with the times.

 

During my high school years (1964-1968), I most enjoyed shopping in Kirkman’s Fashion Shop, owned and operated by Mrs. Ruth Kirkman, who was always so helpful and kind.  For special occasions, I was very pleased to purchase a dress from this shop.

 

After the big fire that destroyed the hotel on the corner of Main and Blackman Streets, a J. C. Penney Store became another shopping opportunity.  When I was still doing some sewing, I spent time going through the large books of patterns that were located in the back corner of this store.  The wife of one of my seventh- and eighth-grade teachers (Mr. Donald Kemper) worked at this Penney’s for a number of years.

 

Besides the clothing stores, this block of Main Street included a Rexall Pharmacy where friends and I sometimes had lunch during high school years.  Although I rarely ate at Dagley’s restaurant, my older sister and her friends often had tenderloin sandwiches at this diner during high school lunch breaks.  For both lunch items and ice cream treats, we enjoyed going to Gillis Pharmacy, located in the next block.  From Gillis’, I especially recall the orange phosphates.

 

Between Blackman Street and Mulberry on Main, I fondly remember G. C. Murphy’s ample candy counter from where my purchase of caramel rings with cream centers were placed in a small paper bag.  During the holiday season, I most enjoyed perusing the Christmas aisles at G. C. Murphy’s and at Horney’s Variety Store.  Deciding which ornament or other Christmas decor to buy frequently took pleasant time.

 

Two jewelry stores, two hardware stores, a bowling alley, two banks, and Harris Food Store were among the other buildings on the west side of Main Street.  On the east side of Main were the Palace Theatre, the Wabash Theatre, the American Legion, restaurants, office buildings, and The Daily Clintonian (newspaper building).  Of course, other Businesses lined the side streets that flowed west and east into Main.

 

When I was around eleven or twelve, my dad and I went to Harris Food Store (on the corner of Main and Vine Streets) and selected two evergreens and a little blue spruce tree, all of which my dad and I later planted at the northeast corner of our yard in Blanford.  The blue spruce grew into a spectacular tree which we loved.  Of all the purchases we made along Main Street of Clinton, I am most thankful for the Colorado blue spruce which was the purchase that endured the longest and that most warms my memories of those years of shopping on Clinton’s Main Street.

 

Enjoy a very happy Thanksgiving, and then have fun shopping!

Alice and Leader Dog Willow

 

November 21, 2018, Wednesday

 

 

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