First of a three part series.
When I was a little girl, my mother always told me stories about when she was a little girl growing up in the country. Before Christmas, she and her mother would go into the big city to Christmas shop in the big stores downtown. This was before they had shopping malls and big box stores. The big department stores would spend lots of money to decorate their store windows for the shopper who would travel to shop in their stores.
Yesterday, my step-father took my mother, my two youngest children,
and me to the big city. He had a few surprises up his sleeve.
The first part of the day was spent looking at various homes from his history.
This is the duplex he lived in until he was seven.
He explained to my children how he thought the front yard was so big.
There were large oak trees in the front when he was small.
All of the neighborhood kids would run through the sprinkle in the front yard.
During the school year, he would walk home from school
and have lunch on the little porch above the front doors.
This is the gas station his dad used to manage. It used to be a Sunoco.
The Women's Club Pavilion at the park where he used to play.
The sign said it was built in 1920.
Architectural detail from one of the buildings we saw.
His aunt's house. A few blocks away. This is also the house that my step-father's
grandfather had built. So, his father and aunt grew up in
this house. His aunt lived her all her life.
One of the entrances to the high school his aunt went to when she was growing up.
From Wikipedia: "The $2 million theater opened in the Keith Building on November 6, 1922, seating 3,100. The interior was clad with Carrara marble and 154 crystal chandeliers, and the main lobby, dubbed the “Great Hall,” was decorated with over 30 paintings."
