Rhea (DeLaBarre) Mills sent us us some excellent photos of and nostalgic comments about the F. W. Woolworth Store on Central Avenue in Valley City. Its lunch counter and soda fountain were popular with many of us from the three high schools, back during the time we were teens. And she included a scan of the menu from the lunch counter during that same era. "Going to the dimestore," i.e., Woolworth's and/or the Ben Franklin "5 & dime" store were special treats I looked forward to during my early childhood, many years before I became a "Hiliner."
The photos (along with the shot above), together with comments by Charles (Chuck) DeLaBarre (Rhea's brother), and the menu, can be found here in a PDF version of a brief PowerPoint slideshow. Rhea and Chuck's father was the manager of Woolworth's and your Blogmeister can still see him greeting customers and moving around keeping the store ship-shape. Two shots of a 1951 Ford round out this collection.
Rhea adds that she remembers many of the stores in Valley City. She says, "I loved going to Sheppard's (for records, I imagine!), I loved the bakery; loved Ben Franklin's 'cause they had things Dad didn't have in Woolworth's. Loved the Dairy Queen 'cause it was on the way home from the swimming pool where we would always get a nickel cone; loved hanging out at your drive-in, Colleen (Bryngelson, now Zick), and at the A & W. Straus Clothiers was where Dad got so many of his suits, and the list goes on and on!" Thanks, Rhea, and thank you, Chuck, for your excellent essay and photos everyone can view (and/or print) on the PDF.
2 comments:
Great memories! That Woolworth store was a big part of our growing up -- we could buy Christmas gifts for our parents there, with our own money! (Yikes, what did we get them.) And of course, there was the Blue Walz Perfume.
Ah, Woolworth's - I remember the food counter where we had after-school cokes and french-fries, when we weren't doing that at Foss Drug, that is. Also at Woolworth's - those wonderful caramel-covered marshmallow squares. I actually ran across them in recent years - and even ordered them on-line - amazing what fond memories will make us do!
Bonnie Cink Ness
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