In my last post I mentioned that shopping was rather limited in the small town I grew up in. Actually, that's not entirely true.
I remember Christmas shopping at the hardware store that had china and a gift shop. And I remember the dry goods store which had clothes and fabric. I mentioned the Rexall Drug that last post and they too had a gift shop as well as a toy department. Snyder's usually filled the bill for shopping for the guys, and of course the dry goods did, also.
So shopping in the '50's and the '60's while somewhat limited, seemed to work, especially on the small budget my younger brother and I worked with. The memories I'm thinking of right now probably began in the late '50's and progress to the mid '60's. Our meager budgets were augmented by a ten dollar each donation from Mom and Dad, supposedly for our chores for the year. (We received no allowance.) John and I often went together to purchase presents for our parents and I remember purchasing some pretty glasses for Mom at the hardware store which matched some glassware she already had.
As I mentioned, our town was small. Very small. And it was the same town our dad and paternal grandmother had grown up in. From the time we were school age, John and I were able to travel the town freely; we pretty much knew who lived in each house, and everyone knew us. Therefore, we were allowed to go downtown on our own to shop. I remember one year when John, he was probably about seven or eight, bought Dad a steel brush for cleaning tools. He purchased it at the Western Auto where they didn't wrap. (Thinking on it now, I'm sure it wasn't a store where gifts were often purchased.) As we continued our shopping, we wound up at Snyder's. They wrapped, so John asked them if they'd wrap the brush for dad. They did. Ahhh, the joys of small town life. :-)
Speaking of John and wrapping, another favorite memory of mine is a Christmas in the same time frame when he handed me a box and asked me to wrap it. Then he said, "Don't open it! It's yours."
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Ha! John sounds about like my Dad. However, Dad worked it so that I wrapped all of his gifts to Mom and, of course, Mom wrapped Dad's gifts to me. That way, neither of us had to wrap our own. I think that there has been just once in my life that Dad did his own wrapping of the gift for me...and I will always remember it. :)
ReplyDeleteDid you keep the wrapping paper? I have kept some one of my grandsons used to wrap a present for me and I smile every time I see it in the closet.
ReplyDeleteNowadays Mike and I each shop for our own gifts and I do all the wrapping. (LOL)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Chris, that there were goods and services in that small place. The town served not only the residents but the farmers and loggers of the outlying areas. Having walked the "main drag" recently, I don't think you could do it today. In recent years, a visiting friend inquired in town where she could buy a towel and was sent to King's on Riverside -- three miles out of town.
And remember the Saturday drawings down town?
Yes, I was thinking of the Saturday drawings as I wrote this. If I can get a picture (Mom has all my childhood ones), I have another memory to share which coincides with them.
ReplyDeleteNo towels downtown?? No wonder everyone shops out of town these days. Kinda sad.
My style is to excitedly rip a present open so I don't save the paper. ;) I love picking out paper and wrapping the presents, though.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I am trying to go green with gift bags I make myself.
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