Posted on 04/20/2018 6:13:02 PM PDT by jfd1776
Thanks John.
I remember my mother taking me downtown on the North Shore line and the L to to Christmas shopping at Marshall-Fields and Carson’s Sad.
John, you hit it out of the ballpark today.
Well written!
Yup, same here. My grandmother worked at Fields, and we lived in Evanston, so we’d go downtown (Field’s had its own underground subway stop) and hit both Field’s and Carson’s. It was an event. But it’s part of a distant past.
Thank you, ConservativeMind; you’re too kind!
Particularly in the last year more and more stores are closing up.At least a third of the retail floor space in this mall is currently vacant.I go there regularly because it's a great place to walk but there's never anyone there...even on Saturdays.
Brick and mortar retail stores are dying...for better or for worse.
Macy’s was stupid to kill the Marshall Field brand. It was a Chicago icon.
Good post.
I was one of those Chicagoans. Many times we took the L downtown and got off at the stop where you could walk into the lower level of Carson's. I remember the café there, the Tartan Tray. Going downtown was always a big treat.
Younkers was a brand from Des Moines, Iowa that spread over the midwest.
My mom always looked forward to visiting Younkers store for homes at Merle Hay Mall and the Younkers tea room in their downtown store.
All gone now...
In Boston it was Jordan Marsh and Filenes.
Gone.
What is it?
JUST ABOUT NOBODY WEARS NICE CLOTHES ANYMORE, NOR DO THEY, ADULTS AND CHILDREN, WEAR MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLOTHES FOR DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES, AS WAS ONCE THE NORM!
Even before there were department store, even long before the Victorian era introduced "consumerism" for everyone, people of all stripes, extremely wealthy to the very poor had "special" clothes to wear to church or temple. Special clothing for different events...confirmations, weddings, funerals. And then the "modern" era of consumerism hit!
The department stores of the 19th century, both in Europe and in America, were not just a place to buy many different things, all in one place, they represented adventure, a special trip/day out, a place to meet friends, and yes, many of them also had tea rooms and/or restaurants.
Christmas and Easter offered a time to do up the stores big time, offer special lunches, breakfast with Santa and yes, picture taken with Santa and the Easter Bunny.
Until relatively recently, kids had school clothes, play clothes, Sunday "best", and some had work clothes.
For adults, the more wealth, the more one used to need many different outfits for day and evening.
Then, in the late 1960s, the Commies, using the damned "HIPPY MOVEMENT", began, with much force, to get rid of all traditions, manners, normal families ( and by extension, families doing things together ), religion, and the whole idea of GROWING UP!
Today, almost NOBODY wears anything suitable; let alone proper for different occasions!
Then throw in the fact that as the years go by, whomever is designing clothes, are making ugly, unsuitable, trash...at every level!
The whole idea of "special clothes" has long ago gone by the wayside and so, you have people wearing T-shirts and stupid dungarees ( that's "jeans" for you youngsters )to the theatre, to work, everywhere. Heck, there are even people who wear pajamas to grocery stores and on airplanes!
Also, people are far more isolated; they no longer join clubs and spend far more time, all alone, but hooked up to cell phones, laptops, etc. and don't feel the need to bother to look "nice"...even when they ARE out of society.
So was Carson’s! :-)
(Mom had some knowledge of the fashion and home decoration fields.)
Our closest Younkers has always been a reliable place for finding nice things needed at the last minute, and it will be sorely missed.
I remember traveling with my parents as a child. Chicago - we visited Carson, Pirie, Scott and Marshall Field’s. Dallas and trip to Neiman Marcus (I still remember the triple screen TV and the one with a reel-to-reel video recorder built in.) Boston, and an eye opening trip to Filene’s basement - when it really was the basement.
And of course, the Pink Pig the Crystal Bridge at Rich’s in Atlanta.
Nopardons, you’re absolutely right.
The Left has attacked everything that is American, in every way, right down to how we dress.
All an effort to ensure that the America of our ancestors - the nation of the protestant work ethic, the rugged individual, the limited government, the Judeo-Christian tradition - would be scrubbed from the historical record.
And it has left us with the current cultural and economic desert.
We lived in Chicago for a while and when we first moved there, one of our first stops was the downtown ( the one on the Miracle Mile, in Watertower didn't exist yet ) Fields and then Carson's. They were once great stores and their passing hurts my heart!
My mother always said that: YOU BEHAVED THE WAY YOU WERE DRESSED!" and she was correct.
Today, sadly, most people dress like slobs and behave badly.
Men don't shave and imagine that looking like they constantly need a shave is somehow alluring. It is NOT and neither are "man buns" !
Women aren't any better and many look like they just rolled out of bed, when they appear in public.
Kids? Don't get me started and college students look like the very dregs of the Earth and behave like the filthy mobs during the aftermath of the French Revolution.
So called celebrities? Beneath the bottom of the barrel and their behavior follows suit.
Me and mine?
We all refuse to be members of this uncouth rabble and stick with the "old ways", as much as we can.
“WEAR MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLOTHES FOR DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES”
i still wear many different special clothes for many different activities. I have special clothes for painting - ones that already have spilled paint on them. Special clothes for using with 2-cycle engines like string trimmers and chain saws. special clothes for auto repair and oil changing. special clothes for hot weather like shorts and t-shirts. special clothes for cold weather like goose down jackets, insulated gloves, insulated headgear, and Sorrel boots for deep snow. special clothes for indoor activities in my own home like plain underwear and sometimes a fuzzy robe if it’s chilly. the list of my special clothes for special activities is nearly endless.
I went to a local bank this AM and the teller was a very nice young man WEARING A BOSTON CELTICS SWEATSHIRT.
I called their main office when I got home-——asking why not business attire. They said that they would look into it.
.
Good for you! A bank is a "formal place of business" and as such, the tellers not only represent the institution, but should dress in a suitable way, which means BUSINESS ATTIRE; i.e. a suit and tie for men and something similar for women.
Cripes...I remember when bank employees, even those whom the public never saw/came in contact with, had a dress code, which most assuredly did NOT include a damned sweatshirt!
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