Are you old enough to remember getting "Dressed-up" for a trip "Downtown" to Sears/Roebuck on a Sat. afternoon???
Having to wear new blue jeans a little too stiff and inches too long and had to be rolled up at the feet with shoes that too were uncomfortable from being new?
Staring at the window displays that changed depending on the season, mannequins caught in a perpetual posturing, one of my favorites at Sears was the escalator I would ride u p and down at least a dozen times. The metal "stairs" that magically disappeared when you reached the top or bottom.
A little bulge in my jeans pocket, pennies I had saved from cashing in pop bottles two or three cents a bottle which gave me close to a quarter a LOT for penny candy. Having to decide the ultimate challenge of how much I could get into the little white bag. I usually settled on the malted chocolate balls, since they were so light in weight the counter lady could scoop more into the little white bag.
Once that was done, my next goal was to find mom, she usually ended-up in the yardage dept. looking for fabrics for dresses or suits that gram would make, Gram was a wizard of sewing much of our new clothes and I loved watching her pedaling her old sewing machine, I sat near my beloved Gram having to stay quiet so she could conceintrate on turning the paper pattern into a shirt or dress. But back at Sears and Roebuck.
Mom would often allow me to pick out one single toy. A difficult decision for a young boy. Sometimes it would be a new cap gun, or maybe another container of "Tinker toys" (I wonder if they even sell those anymore?) I loved those because I could assemble a " ferris wheel' or other kind of carnival ride whatever my imagination might come up with. I also had several sets of "Lincoln Logs" I mostly made log cabins with those and pretend I was in the woods surrounded by bears and other fearsome animals I would need the cap gun for...the best part would be meeting dad for a lunch at the drive in root beer famous but I forget the name. It was ice cold and served in a large ice cold mug. Those would be the most amazing Saturdays I can remember.
Staring at the window displays that changed depending on the season, mannequins caught in a perpetual posturing, one of my favorites at Sears was the escalator I would ride u p and down at least a dozen times. The metal "stairs" that magically disappeared when you reached the top or bottom.
A little bulge in my jeans pocket, pennies I had saved from cashing in pop bottles two or three cents a bottle which gave me close to a quarter a LOT for penny candy. Having to decide the ultimate challenge of how much I could get into the little white bag. I usually settled on the malted chocolate balls, since they were so light in weight the counter lady could scoop more into the little white bag.
Once that was done, my next goal was to find mom, she usually ended-up in the yardage dept. looking for fabrics for dresses or suits that gram would make, Gram was a wizard of sewing much of our new clothes and I loved watching her pedaling her old sewing machine, I sat near my beloved Gram having to stay quiet so she could conceintrate on turning the paper pattern into a shirt or dress. But back at Sears and Roebuck.
Mom would often allow me to pick out one single toy. A difficult decision for a young boy. Sometimes it would be a new cap gun, or maybe another container of "Tinker toys" (I wonder if they even sell those anymore?) I loved those because I could assemble a " ferris wheel' or other kind of carnival ride whatever my imagination might come up with. I also had several sets of "Lincoln Logs" I mostly made log cabins with those and pretend I was in the woods surrounded by bears and other fearsome animals I would need the cap gun for...the best part would be meeting dad for a lunch at the drive in root beer famous but I forget the name. It was ice cold and served in a large ice cold mug. Those would be the most amazing Saturdays I can remember.
