Downtown Richmond Memories

are they you this program was made possible in part by the financial contributions to your community idea station by viewers like you thank you they know the days where we lived on the farm an important part of getting ready for christmas was a trip to richmond to the shopping it was always the way to dc to drown this city is proper then the standard suggests a ditch at and we are wrapped in richmond at the southern railway station on the sounds that james renner

grandin's now across the region listening to wait wait where we stand they're impossible to see you when we got there and i don't remember feeling a cat instead the

reading paper and i would start playing which goes to these libyans may end of all the lines reading there was a time when people from charlottesville and roanoke came to shop in richmond special occasions brought others from as far away as north carolina to choose a wedding dress or to do their christmas shopping whether you rode the train from burke fellow came over town from manchester or to the streetcar uptown from churchill downtown richmond was the place to be all it gets in and i'll be your host for a nostalgic trip to the downtown richmond of the years gone by so put on your hat get out your white cotton gloves and let your memories take you went to shopping we're going to share some richmond memories downtown

downtown didn't always been broad street two people who lived and soft richmond there was another downtown whole street every saturday morning a group of children from my neighborhood and actually all neighborhoods around whole street would walk down to the guinness piano and enjoy a western movie like to get in was ten cents popcorn was ten cents and a coke was fights at some fourth quarter you could have all morning watching and maybe that you very much enjoyed and of course western when very big when i was a child i can throw out that i had that i had everything passively didn't stop they will win and they're not going to do that everyone

that's right youngstown state shows that we only use it they do whatever they could do to light saying on banks has to go to sea about jones movie all mostly i not just from the area i lived in but from further west and so what they were all converge at the elephant that cowboy movie then we went to shop up and down wall street we were going

to end war where's that was roses there were futile tiny department stores ball went and hobbes was where they're the main we just enjoyed the nickel and dime stars roses fire and i'm still work and there was fish in ireland and still there was large stores and we just walked around and looked at all of the high as the flag young girl slang and down the rains and the jury and new thing applies the recall has given a little bit of change on saturday days to just go and holstein the tactile things that you want and i remember when you could buy items for five cents and ten cents so i did very well with that fifty cents a week allowance i could see a movie have popcorn break the code and buy something and it still you know have a few coins left usually so it was a wonderful way as a child to spend saturday morning or when christmas celebrations anyway just like i was

mostly was that is why that is magnificent and size are so it was a small generator of the year and they would have their declarations that would go across the street actually that it starts in the middle but it would be like a garland that we go from light post or light posts across called straight and they sell the head music a christmas i remember perilous idea thats very much christmas oriented on hosting some wonderful place the whole street area is surrounded by the old manchester neighborhoods of swans borrow blackwell and newtown where a strong sense of community created a lasting memories my country really hadn't happened in countries and so forth are wonderfully host

it appears based as long and we certainly are in play games everybody's child was barely have and something happened to do in the day that was good old days we didn't have telephones and the tone but they kept the message before you get home and have a david i've never figured it out because they didn't have a rhyme everything was sent to new orleans is known as social and political activities we had on me and they so so many school activities resume a video teaches lived in the same area also we called up town and an art to

go to the stage and there's a lot of our friends we had to go downtown and saturday evening it was just what you did you want to hold street nineteenth and whole streets was the social called for the african american community in south rich and gregory's was a favorite meeting place is there is there was that great you think so however the big day and most of what you hear that second street those shows but also come to suspect and camps all se

when we left the church or leave it always go oh i'll speak to randell confectioner and be with the aisle where there is that ice cream and so still are the best case and i ask a higher end the fall south and now some analysts ago they came out to find ice cream sodas and so i wrote the other day in which an ice cream because it's mostly for teenagers and he's enjoyed and it was not lions defensive line it seems really to make each of us today

it is key it is in france fortunately phoebe in the community because it's very close knit community is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city a group of boys grew up there together and consider all of richmond their home and their playground they were so close that they still meet today to reminisce about the good times they had in their old neighborhood of churchill churchill was kind of a blue collar neighborhood of middle class hardworking people where it feels weird strange weird words can feel it's like dannon another world rihanna palomino name lady whatever them around the house and the state will no doubt when the weather was barely to deliver

papers point because the dam dispatch and now when the weather get to bear like additional highways outside libya and we deliver papers on spec any reason we want their way to the bus stop we had streetcars it didn't even automobile any of her by a newly revived now when we were kids call out the end of the year we were going to switch their tracks for that fritos and turner states and change a trial is and they give us transfers around all richmond which was dallas was a great thing when the warhead of the money if they would let us rather they now want to have given away from a start bought their hamburgers they were august are often we were robert gehrke a trowel they would have just that combined put the trolley on the good maybe another fifty three some ideals were unemployed trolley again

this inland it was always the lowest rival that was to have those trolleys i never hit a key to the deal was that a lot of the neighbors looked at for that is if a semi was innovative voluntarily get a real quiet so you don't need a gps told a little rag to make sure that they had what they needed to take care of the people in the world than an associative that sell to get people and most of them fifteen to accuse neighbor block you had to be tough and it was about a street fights don't know if you have a real fight us government asset then things did that way and afterwards of michigan

and that's what made it so great because it was a it was a neighborhood and all that data's were like what we're a playground that we had a football game which we thought was pretty great to be going away to city on sunday and jonathan sun it's a lot the ballgame going on anyway are there he'll have to tame fulton entertaining look steel which was pham well have attained also detained by wanda blaming you employed against the cn the lawyer and you see a bunch of get good noble us us free college football you go to a football player who was ultimately and we draw gradually senate floor that's the us about its waiver for you rails were you

were going about it with all the apollo guys so there's the tale but that was about it includes and i had worn black death toll on that i don't think that we as a good bulk of hell are less involved well the epa grooves in a name those will take a few places thanks julie when he landed in

miami van gogh true true now your feet baby getting tired from strolling through the neighborhood but i hope your memory isn't when we return we'll have our picture taken on broad street walk down gray streak do a little window shopping end have lunch and some of your favorite places but before we do please take this opportunity to make a generous pledge of support to your community idea stations i'll wait for you under the clock it's been

richmond was a different place when we were youngsters or at least that's how we remember it but no matter which neighborhood you came from we all shared some of the same childhood experiences growing up and one of the best of those experiences was go only downtown in the west and the environment of an alice we're going out well iowa's no way really place to grow up like leave it to be that it was an unfortunate is that we strike and five together and that's because what might make high skill to gather everyone i was playing with we had a xanax a nation knows where when we made our entertainment everybody's mom

has played with joe and if you did anything wrong in the seventies i remember when smoking behind some shrubs with another car and mine for a weekend event like the first cigarette her mother at home you have to be very sneaky was my last cigarette a somewhat town so where we really wanted to do something special to go to watch spain would take a streetcar school and transfer to the bus to get on the buses the broad street six that sounds just a special day to go shopping spree for its body was inadvisable

lawyers you know that was a place to be back in those days richmond was very segregated neighborhoods were of course and now but everybody was stan tehran it was multicultural an nea you just got such a wonderful slice of life and all that that contrast seemed to just flow together for us through the surrogacy was chairman of the sidewalks were shoulder to shoulder throngs of people going about their business as a shop an end oslin ariana noto mas was actually worse where that was all shop in the flu did the delicatessens bakeries and the entertainment donna rhodes was really the shopping hub bill taylor

worst places to store your work there was a whole universe when he got off the bus down by the big dime stores murphy's or woolworth's i usually on the corner there was somebody interesting and unusual years later straight and everybody remembers small black sunglasses as she carried around a camera and he photographed people getting off the bus to just walk up and there are some orcas you could different

people you know so it was you ought to have snap a picture of cheating now actually take your picture when she snapped it because you know when you do that and that the band she said he wore that is that the same narrative and you don't want to see you know go on your going away but then if you say d one depicted she saw talent nina but she was always out they were doing that walk up and down the street and take pictures as far as we could tell that she was a fixture there and gallo who creepy navy doesn't sound this beautiful young lady on the things that truly we need a little fishing licenses

when you say it was intriguing but it was also something completely harmless this is just an institution south downtown more white gloves and flour and specially shops way street there were clothing shops hotels and vote which literally moved further down the street and that was a great store for those of us who were in women's apparel they were specialty store they always had a lot of new different things to offer it's all very appealing and felt that victory in the store's course juan tell us took that to an extreme art you were almost fearful stepped in the door because it was so

very elegant there are definitely you dealt with a sales person who knew your style and again would call up and say i know you like this kind of blue and there's marvelous progress well you went downtown it was verified and salesmanship now the first floor had that they more expensive clothes and they also had a hat department there and then you could go up stairs to serve a sports section and less expensive those were still very nice things i loved ones how this and that i was a working girl could really afford lives out us except after the sails across the sky or the beginning of the year you know at the id and at the beginning of the year you know would have the christmas after christmas sales you don't mind how bad is that it but as a worker odegaard of mine tell that's it i want all those was more intimidating than a big price tags on everything i can shop here regularly i just

went there for the week i don't even remember how much they were i remember they were expensive and they were very exclusive yelling get a man called your other love the region's poorer the really really good ones i remember going down tantalize saturday going to mind called us to buy my first barrington it's nice and shiny and senate you had to have to be in this city there's a lot of activity on grace and it was full of little old ladies getting off buses that's what i remember a lot back then there was a certain look very staid very proper there were always just a little ladies' shoes like your schoolteachers used to wear with it

this thick little he yawns and the least that it was sort of the post civil war a little old ladies you know it was still several southern gentility you know some of them later on they were the ones that would like to change down the street with an umbrella because you were wearing slacks yes ma'am german didn't get at what it is we girls used to get together and we would say less animal rights to read today he always felt so elegantly were in non raise the cares there was had a nice white tablecloths they had the fresh flowers and somebody will or the turkey pot pie somebody with color that was very close a way it's and then it's a tough on antarctica order the chaplain still high and ages would make you feel so good to get notarized to return and what's the fashion sell hot shops was my mom's favorite and my mother liked it because it didn't

waste the time that we thought they had everything under the sun at the hot shoppe to be a carbon free speech the salads everything was just pristine everything was just beautiful but with small children in a cafeteria it's not a good mix she got stuck with carrying everything the first thing would be the entrees in the fella cutting the slices of roast beef and then you get to the vegetables and the bread in the desert in the beverage and that sort of thing there are always a lot of people their lawyer very thriving place one sunday afternoon when the only probably after church went to the hot shoppe in and i think i share my grandmother or for this was sinful we went to a movie and lows have to show up at the church and the chinese chicken salad out is one and a half

hours and now many people remember the couple recently just awesome it sound actually a more like a muffin or a wall that's made in a muffin tin and they are cooked i believe in a very hot ovens and what happens is that they will rise up and when you bite into them they immediately collapsed that they're full of very buttery egg taste and they're just wonderful and there were occasionally times when they come out there are only like this time they were famous because they always pops in and they popped up and that's what they were known for and i think we'd probably about five hundred thousand calories apiece it the least but they just forget how to do it and first how they did it for in enough size for restaurant was always amazing to me after i knew more about the chemistry of cooking

it i enjoyed woolworth's counter the mother an outlet always ordered the blue plate special and that would appear from downstairs where it was cooked on a down later and so i remember being very fascinated looking at the dough waiter and hoping we'd be seated near it so i could see it mildly plate special lunch was on that particular delivery may seem like it took power for our mileage to appear but once it did of course it was always enjoyable and it's interesting to watch the ladies behind the counter because they would be preparing sandwiches and siblings a lot of activity a lot of things for a child to watch and then by eating your lunch you had the opportunity of looking at the many take stands they were metal with glass downs and under them on the counter where many desserts chocolate layer cake in them rank high tide chocolate were ranked high so you

you eat you want all the wealth looking at those desserts and deciding which one you were tear when your meal was over so i used to enjoyed that film downstairs in the stairs i heard and tertiary which was a certain restaurant which like they own on the floor of the store and i mean everybody follows city would accommodate their cause it was a homemade thing and then the cooks back their own big kitchen and so that wasn't that was a very popular place a lot of that was in the basement of traumas and it was just one of those various little lunch havens that you could go to tan tan this was an area not like the lunch

counter small area with tables and chairs and all of the windows with stuff behind it and there were pieces of high in sandwiches all kinds of stuff put your nickel dime water in the sly and there was this little window that opened up after you fear that it was just a one of a kind thing and it was really kind of coup thomas which are gay and it's right that the court said that they had everything under the sun a wife would love to get a chuckle out of christmas so i'd have to go in and then when the sun's light on to develop a loved one to talk about but i mean it was wonderful it is going on it's been

we'd go up there and nights and wildly up and down broad street just when the shopping place was full people weren't sharp and tom was among roads and on for just those and people would just walk and she had seen the windows and i truly think that that was one of them biggest draws downtown everybody had elegant windows started down the roads on gray streak mostly and they had all the windows decorated with the mannequins in their close of the season in which you do when there's no system it sounds so invested and we would go dance outlaw and muscles to say this is my window and everything in its man and the next window everything in its memos to me some of the same stress so i had very few black eyes

just you take your pen pencil lantana we go out look in the windows and see some highlights huge oil ports absolutely magical each just a work of art and people would stand there and just watch this time his stores everybody out of themselves those tried to illustrate customs which is christmas time and things that nature and there was a lot of the city of richmond with the train's see in the fifth and greece window interesting part to the windows with the headman thing that helps leading santa's and so that was really a curiosity for a child and something we didn't see the windows merry christmas

i was of the interesting thing was that you go away one week and then you come in the next week and then the whole downtown store has been transformed into this winter wonderland opinions like venison of new york city and errors one of what led up to the leaves and the candles and decorations and it was a wonderful by with but before their christmas holiday we went to work on creating a fan of real toll on the character so we created snow beer the cold and innovator my favorite player

it'll snow bear would come out of hibernation during the thanksgiving holiday is every year snow there was a hit from the first time he was ever discovered here in richmond the children always became justice and chanted by snow there as they did by center for children just loved him still there was somehow a little more approachable i think a big guy himself you'd see him coming down an island just all the sudden any child within a ten foot radius would run to him and grab them around the needs is very comfortable and very friendly and always was you're easy to approach by the sober believe was to the tune of the hokey pokey the right now and then you go on to the right on the left are in the barriers and the whole bit and the kids would go wild was like this

huge much frenzy tics it and then the final stage shopping days before christmas snow bear would leave the storm and returned to the north pole where he was going to have a nation until the fall on thanksgiving some of the best richmond tradition that a little odd because the people in our community by creating this program your community idea stations are helping preserve up precious legacy of richmond memories and your financial support is what makes a program like this possible so please make your pledge now they're still more memories to share when we return we'll go shopping again a tall i am or shown no more inroads but before we do please pick up a fallen called the number on your screen fb

seas lulu we just it was just a rough family maude the family fang like macy's and gambles and the yacht races couldn't do without gambles and gambles without laces the same way with all amazon along roads it's like written by put them together they are they are one one entity afford downtown shopping how shocking was a pleasure when i was growing up at that was what you did and i can remember my father saying to my

mother if you get bored around the house does put on your hand around her shelter it end people would do that i mean they would just go down and look at what was new in fashion and italian necessarily buy anything shopping was was not your shopping was was a pleasure and it was up to something you do like a hobby things are slower in those days than the temple of living was slower and though nothing at me now everything has to be instant and then in those days you could take your time and you blocked usually from calvert to counter in the store to store and and you get it all done i remember my mother saying that if she came to richmond and when downtown was sent members of congress a whole day and to see somebody she knew that it was an attack that was just a normal day

my mother would frequently meet friends there pre arranged or sometimes we would just see friends and family and that was always the anticipation that we would see someone we knew it was a big event for people to come downtown and shock today there are so many places to go and spend your money you can't go ten feet in in the united states without running into a story but then they're there were stores on every corner and the two stores downtown of course were much bigger than any of their suburban stores they offered a broader selection of merchandise they offered more exotic merchandise than they would find in the suburban stores and numb it was just a more structured thing to come downtown to shop now we're very so casual about everything does drive up to the door and running in your shorts but you would have done that thirty years ago by any means it was it is going downtown to shop was sort of like dressing up and going to church on sunday

and back in those days did you wear white gloves and a hat in the main always have a cow dung today uncommon in the salts and the boundaries in the rafters sudafed letterman yes and we would meet under the clock right that the information desk on the first law about elegance and bottom in downtown so legally under the clock and we'll go shopping for mara sewell rents was just it was so souther it may do is they'll southern south because everything the dead it was just so classy i mean everything they did acknowledge that have been known as to have just just the best style of play they an end they had to close for everybody it mean they had me and cries close and then if you really want a feel good you could go to the floor where they carry the really expensive things and you could look at those you know a dream the fur coats and all that but no it had

everything it's bad it's been mr sennott sure room was curled amethyst room was on the second floor and this was their co years ago people would bow to two yards of material they can to address my command have a suit made and they want a hat to match with sarah sewell even had people come as fast north carolina south carolina georgia that take care of the pieces of the artists on the parent should make that happen at a st is it just different

that's right they were given last generation and generation upstairs mr sampson yes in this commentary masters in music at leaving all that was in the program and then when she went to germany felt she brought back has achieved it recommends have at least some of these services and when they returned she calmly says come here she made to me and say that's so she made those

phone from april a billion active i think many of his swollen since then but in a way that was the when i used to when i would i watch hat and then was to have their president was going to a ball virginia museum and he was going to be a sheik of some sought then she made him this big white thing with the jewels and felt was awe that you owe me the model but the label always goes in the back the labels always said the sound for you about services woods it's actually was a functioning strumming and there was the war of talk to working on registering they were everyone would walk

past history sometimes i think the ladies again shoppers they like to do no comparison shopping and they would go to tijuana to get the prize and they will go to the other store and see what they have they're in crisis there in sober people frequently closed doors on one on one time well that's jay walking at one point richmond police decided they were going to walk to the clinic and around and back home a dissipation gathered almost sunny side of the street and they crossed the street and the police were treated and that was that boston university actually it was a very difficult hack of several generations ago it was really successful and they put up one christmas tears across a d e a r

someone would do in this hour sherpa was your personal service of bursting you'll hear about a walter hill i can remember we used to have pencils new pencils that said every buy sells a tall timers and so about four hours a day that was very true because everybody got out on the foreign service the customer even the buyers and the assistant byers it was the type of atmosphere where the customer was looking for something special the buying staff would actually go out and try and find that for them it was a large store but it was still operating like a small specialty store from outlying we have in their beloved the problem was clearly the work behind the camera in it the young girl would come up about how white kid blows for her baby pa pa they are banks and was clay would take a low white cloth from behind the camera with a silly

can wash our hands off serve her elbow to move rubble cup on the key anna and then fit every modifying those phone to their cages problem rather than bring in them but without pay a white kid was black years ago was the referral for the vowels which was a lot now the hunter but that's a service union and one man band that most vivid memories and tall hand was with my mother was when she would purchase stockings stockings came in small boxes three pair per box and the ladies behind the counter would stick their hand in the stocking so that you could make a color selection and i remember my mother looking at several colors deciding which color was best for her and then the clock of course with that than facts laid back on at a vivid memory of hand they weighed sell the stockings the

cosmetics department head louisa or boom chosen roads palace to blend of palau and i used to go more than in the us do get caught up outside moi characters' blending that pavel was fascinating set of pamela paul is the free calls a patented put a little scales and weigh the needs of low but the permanent sits there and then blend them to see just go right into your face is she was the only woman in richmond at the time that could mix power to your own specifications she would analyze your skin color and combine all of these colors and mix it to your specifications she had your recipe on a little card and when it was time for you to come back for more products she would give you a call that she was the top sales person in the entire world for chosen roots she was beautiful her skin was absolutely quarters she was the best ever tasma just aiming they actually didn't need

trials of the ritz every thursday and you would just look at her makeup and say my goodness that does that for her at my deals from denver but in those days we had home delivery somebody could purchase something and then just say they wanted it delivered to their home they never had to carry it around the store and then of course the mellon grows and the timer trucks were just the greatest thing they drive up to your door and the drivers of the trucks they knew its inmates say ole ole ole miss harris when i was a sales promotion director ring in and get a call from somebody who would say to me i just want to tell you how wonderful these men are on your delivery trucks you know he not only brought me the package but he took back my shoes that i needed to have him with her and i mean that can do is really pretty unusual that stores being across the street from each other people sometimes think you know it's the way we

in and they would bring back the dress not paying much attention to the charge to get i guess and want to return it and they you know that somebody would say that right now to this came from the word roam and the deer and we would say yes that will take care of it for you and we would take a hair particular it was not a person we arranged to have to dress taken alone roads and credited to the right to the department and my job at the corner shop was if you bought an appliance in our went to your home and if it was a wash machine we wash clothes it was on our nominee on when we hire a coach all if it was a phrase or what we froze in the show jenna packaging plant i think it was just sort of ingrained i'm in us that the customer was the lifeblood of any retail operate ocean so we were just trying to make sure that we took care of a customer and got to know them and it's very

service oriented you don't see that much the box was as much as the gift is what lessons and i still have amyloid sparks that i keep my precious christmas ornaments now of course with those stores being out of existence as if you had there a hat box for instance or from sarasota at mel and rose or if you had a hat back from tall i'm hers is a mummified

human and they are now that you know you'd see the gray and white toll on the hat boxes for instance with a florida millionaire stroke wandering around town and people would allow people use them for their knitting you know i wasn't on his head had nice boxes of christmas that you could put your things and then we're saving to store things than and that that was a real real plus we had one year particularly where we had gold caps on the boxes that people just loved because they put the gift in the box in chatham goal ribbon on it didn't matter what happened to the voter with that was it was beautiful and you never have to give any pilot a gift and an unknown red spots that don't appreciate it because it is so rare people threw them away people don't know about the niceties of shall we

say they're dropping as they were in those days this was a very rich man goes along with the boxes that you can give to people that won't enjoy them and this is from the heyday this is when i remember this the time or bank that they had on all will twenty five cents ten cents for the shopping that they would give them away at christmas time in the knowledge that is somewhat older but it's that same kind of arms virginia's finance department store that's the melon read that remembers a kid the bikes that was the most important to me was the black and white checkered box and that mean you've been to the bakery the tall hammers bakery this is no one who set the boulevards the weeds with sixty people coming up to you that we have the box but it's i don't think they make these six no one of two properties

that had been so when i went to work to try and was seventy two it was like this when i went to france and sell it out of the game very well random holiday sammy baugh a family album go i am i do know they've come his eyes and nominate and pietism are japan uk is that more people knew with all home products than anybody you know customers don't look for a lot of would be people who want to be cured or it's a tradition that is you know oh i read in the paper that no roses because i mean he had to get down there to

go to the sale because i wanted all the men would be a year that i could back eight to remember mel and reds sabat the shopping bags of buybacks is an eye blind christmas cards and just anything that would make me remember now rents and of course with tear inside it just sounds nice it's very feminine empty room everybody knew what the tea room wise and they had a tear in sign for sale which is unbelievable to me and so i meet anyone a dead because there is just richmond it was written to me the tea room i think everybody had sort of a sad feeling every time we meet walk out the marketplace and there was there was no on roads that it was no longer open but those were the years that there were tremendous changes in the retail business in almost every downtown area it was just a trend across the country it wasn't just us and that i think was a big shock that they would actually have to close their doors downtown richmond changed for ever

when no roads closed in january of nineteen ninety four hundreds followed two years later closing its doors in january nineteen ninety two it was shutting down something that you laughed and you had spent sixteen and for many people thirty five forty years of your life and it's like a death i was not working at the store went to the downtown store when i closed that i went down there and it was very said to see all of the store on sale tremendous amounts of merchandise just hanging on rounder she know not beautifully presented any longer was obviously a close out situation you know we're going out of business it was very very sad and you could feel it from even the customers that were there they wanted to be there for the last two wrong but they were sad that it was happening jews

in france is so much more interesting we say you can thank those beautiful stars were having a lovely things and the service and the opportunity that they that they gave us back then that probably we didn't realize at the time but now now we realize how fortunate we were when i look back at my ears and commerce i think that the experience was as much influenced by the people that were surrounding and i do miss the interaction of having those people around it's just a story race

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