Time Machine Holiday Edition

December, 1953 (excerpt)

The Denton Journal

December 24, 1945

Salisbury Times

 December, 1972

Sunday Times (Salisbury)

December, 1937

Baltimore Sun

December, 1934

Salisbury Times

December, 1925 Letter To Santa

Worcester Democrat

Kathy Horney

Pocomoke City

At Christmas time, my mind always goes back to about 1970.

 

I was young (20) and doing Christmas shopping in downtown Pocomoke City.  The air was crisp and cold and a light snow was falling.  The downtown area was lit up with Christmas lights in the storefront windows and Christmas carols were playing over a P.A. or loudspeaker system (I don't know what the technical term is) but I remember that it was beautiful.

 

At that time, you could do ALL of your Christmas shopping downtown - didn't have to go anywhere else. There was a 'five & dime' store, a 'dollar' store, a couple of department stores, a couple of shoe stores, a couple of dress shops, a men's clothing store, a couple of jewelry stores, a couple of catalog stores, a couple of hardware stores, a couple of pharmacies, a couple of banks, and a car dealer by the river.  Just turn the corner off of Market St. and go just one block down Clarke Ave. and there was a soda fountain shop, a couple of mom & pop grocery stores, and a fish market (I think). There may have even been a beauty salon on Willow St. between Second & Clarke (memory is fuzzy here). If you proceeded on to the next block down Clarke Ave., there was a second-hand store (clothing, etc.), a deli, and a small mom & pop clothing store.  Unbelievable isn't it?  Yes, all of those businesses were in the downtown area (at the same time).

 

I miss it when I get thinking about it.  It was different shopping like that than when you go into these hugh chain stores and have to fight the crowds. Whole different atmosphere - the magic of Christmas has gotten lost in greedy commercialism.  Well, maybe that's a bit extreme, but right now I am savoring those wonderful memories of times gone by.

 

P.S.  You could shop without worrying about getting your purse snatched, or getting mugged or carjacked, etc.

Emailed to The Pocomoke Public Eye, Dec., 2013

(PPE reader comment)

 Anonymous said...

Kathy Horney is indeed correct; there was a beauty salon on Willow Street between Second and Clarke! And the downtown merchants banded together to purchase a new automobile which they gave away in a drawing every Christmas season. For each dollar you spent in their store you received one ticket. I believe that the car dealers were also in on this so if you purchased a new car for $2,500 you received 2,500 tickets. I think it was 1970 or '71 that Sharon Benchoff won the car. Her father, Dick Benchoff, was sales manager at Midway and the last thing she needed was another Camaro so they tried to sell it back to Midway but Midway refused to give them a decent price to they had to sell it privately.

Daily Times, (Dec., 2008)

Daily Times, (Dec., 2008)