Life at the Home20

Lori Thornton of Smoky Mountain Family History has challenged some Genea-bloggers to write about the Stores of Yesteryear, a look back at the special memories we all have of old stores and shops from our younger days.  I can’t narrow this down to one store or one memory so I’ll just make a list of memories from several stores and other similar establishments.

I remember:

• the restaurant in Woolworth’s in Sunset Center where you could sit at a booth or the counter.  The counter took up most of the restaurant because it had these penisula-like extensions that stuck out from the main counter.  And you could spin on the seats, although you got in trouble for it.
• the revolving doors at J. C. Penney’s downtown.  At least two trips around for every kid who went in or out were required.
• real carhops at Stanley’s Drive-in, in Daddy’s new ‘65 Mustang with air conditioning (where is that picture?).
• getting my ears pierced at Montgomery Wards.
• shopping for Girl Scout supplies in the back room at J. C. Penney’s.
• getting S&H Green Stamps at the grocery store or the gas station then going home to lick and mount them in the books.  The cashier would dial the amount of your purchase into a machine that spit out the stamps.
• the S&H Green Stamp Store where everything was priced by the book of stamps.
• the “Over 6 Million Sold” sign at McDonald’s and change back from your dollar.  The golden arches were part of the building back then.
• every gas station was full service and when you drove over the cable at the entrance, a bell would signal the attendant that he had a customer.  Need I mention that they checked your oil and cleaned the windshield?
• Gibson’s and Woolco.
• TG&Y (what on Earth did that stand for anyway?).
• the grocery store across from my grandmother’s house that had the life-size statue of a Hereford steer out front.  I think it was life-size.  Seemed like it to me.
• the Southern Maid (or was it Made?) doughnut shop.  I remember it being a small building and I think it had a drive-thru window.  There weren’t many of those back then.
• Myers Fried Chicken with the toy train that ran on a track near the ceiling.
• the cherry cobbler at Underwood’s Bar-B-Q Cafeteria.

And I had no idea I would come up with that many memories.

Tags: History //