"The "5 & 10 cent store" or Woolworths went out of business years ago. I think K-Mart absorbed them. What a shame. There lunch counters were always packed. They would always have the best burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches and fries around.
When we were kids, we would go there to buy presents with our carefully hoarded nickels and dimes at Christmas time.
Does anyone remember Evening in Paris? How about Tangee lipstick. Oh, what fun we had..."
As I posted earlier, in Greensboro, my husband's store was literally right next door to the Woolworth's store that was the site of the Sit-In in 1960.
It was a block from the Courthouse, and of course all the small stores downtown had greatly reduced customer traffic by the 80's, and competition because of the many malls that were subsequently built. It was almost impossible to find a parking place anywhere near the downtown stores.
I several times ate at the lunch counter there, and yes!! - the grilled cheese sandwiches and hamburgers were exceptionally good!!
Of course I frequented many other Woolworth stores throughout my life, and remember vividly still one being the cause of GREAT EMBARRASSMENT for me as a mere child of 5...:(
My sister, Carolyn, and I were given a 25 cents allowance if we cleaned our bedroom on Saturday mornings, and we'd go to the Matinee at one of two theaters in Coral Gables, Florida. It cost a nickel to get in, and the rest went for goodies; usually the little wax bottle of sweet liquid and Milk Duds for me.
Afterward, we often cruised through the nearby Woolworth's to see things we might desire, and one day I picked up a small red ball and begged Carolyn to get it for me...she said NO, but always teased me, and I truly thought she had relented and paid for it...when I got home and was bouncing it on the sidewalk, she was aghast, and told Mom I had taken it without paying for it...oh me oh my!!
Little Miss Margaret was made to walk back to the store with Big Sister, approach the Manager and confess I had taken it without paying for it.
He wisely accepted it back without a lecture, and did NOT reward me for the 'honesty' and apology by giving it to me...I'd have picked up a handful of red hot lava before I'd touch it again, anyway!!
Oh, yes - in those simpler days, when little, we'd agonize over what to get for Mom for Christmas or birthdays - Evening in Paris perfume was so pretty a bottle, as you said, Lori - and I remember being 9 and selecting a set of small juice glasses with red roses on them for her - we had a citrus grove by the house and they would be useful as well as ornamental..:))
They were still in use when I last left home at age 27...
Tangee lipstick?!! The first kind I sneaked and tried at 15!! Very waxy orangey color, it was. I was not allowed to wear lipstick until 16.
In Greensboro, they opened a Woolworth store in a large mall after downtown closed, and for $5 I bought a pretty teakettle I still use to this day - white enamel with flowers on it. That store, too, closed sometime around 1993?
[McCrory's was another similar dime store chain]
Lovely memories, Lady...and very similar to some of mine. I just love your stories. You should write a book...if you haven't already!
I was born in 1945 and can't believe everything that has happened in my life time. It constantly amazes me all of the changes since I was just a child. Prices seem to risen 200% since I was a child thinking that I was rich because I had a couple of pennies and nickels and dimes. And once the tooth fairy actually left me a whole quarter! Sigh, what a wonderful world it was when we could run free and our mothers were at home and we didn't have to keep up with the Jones...