SHOPPING
As I said above, little towns like Vernon where business
hubs. There was little need to go elsewhere to shop. We did all our shopping in
the downtown area at places like M.E.Moses and Woolworth’s. These were call
Five & Dime Stores (5&10 cents). You could buy practically anything in
these stores. They had lunch counters and were filled with neat stuff. If any
of the merchandise had “made in Japan” on it, I felt that it was junk. I
suppose that is because we lived so close in time to WWII. At Easter, Moses would sell little baby
chicks that had been dyed in the colors of Easter. They had them in the store
in open wire cages under heat lamps and we would buy these poor chicks and take
them home, only to have them die shortly. I view that now as a very cruel thing
to do.
The huge stores of today had not come into existence, but
they were on the rise in the late 60s.
Downtown Vernon had men’s stores and separate ladies’s stores and Hill’s
Children store that were independently owned and operated. There was a Perkins,
a J.C.Penny’s and a small Montgomery’s Store where they basically did catalogue
orders. The Montgomery’s catalogue was called a “wish book.” We had auto
stores, jewelry stores, Norsworthy’s Record store, a bakery, a card shop,
etc. All of these were built around the
courthouse city square. In my teenage years, a large Gibson’s Discount Center
was built out on the new loop highway. It was much like today’s Walmart. I
believe this was the start of the decay of the downtown areas. A T.G.&Y.
was also built which took away revenue from Moses and Woolworths. Woolworths
closed their doors, followed not long after by Moses. Eventually we began to
shop in Wichita Falls for a wider variety and other specialty items. They built
Sikes Shopping Center, and I was blown away as we walked through it. I believe
that shopping center is still open today.
We had small Super Markets for groceries. My daddy’s best
friend, Jack Snell opened the first United Supermarket, not far off the courthouse square. Business
took off and he and his family eventually became very wealthy, developing the
United chain of food stores. We had a Piggly Wiggly, which was where Mimi would
shop every week. Mother, too, often shopped there to receive the reward of
green stamps. These were stamps that
could be redeemed at a connecting Green Stamp Store for home goods. I loved going in there with Mother. She
brought home many useful household items from there, and occasionally let me
select an item.
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