Department store shopping in the 50's

It is a warm summer day in 1958. I am wearing a flowered sundress and a soft yellow shrug. We have just come home from shopping downtown at the mall. We watched a fashion show while we ate lunch in Gilmore bros. Tearoom. I had a club sandwich and a piece of cocnut cream pie.

Mom bought me a new Nancy drew book from the table display at the bottom of the escalator. We stopped at the perfume counter to give ourselves a squirt. Mama bought some new hand towels for the little bathroom, and Melanie got a new coloring book and a giant pack of crayons.

The job that interests me most is the elevator lady. From what I can tell gilmore's employs too. I always hope we get the young pretty one instead of the old one who wears a long black dress and asks in a too shril voice, "Going up or going down."

Up is fabrics and notions. We don't go there often because my mother does not sew. She is the only mother I know who doesn't. But the department I always look forward to is the preteen one.


Gilmore's basement lunch counter. lime and orange swivel stools. I alway order a club turkery sandwhich because it makes me feel like a big lady plus I love the little red and green swizzle sticks that are stuck in each of its. four sections.