Remembrance of Things Past

Woolworth’s, Howard Johnson’s, Kokak, Pan Am and Blockbuster. Companies that used to be, but are no more. They all went out of business. Reading a recent article online about their closures brought back many memories. For me, they just weren’t brand names, they were part of my daily life.

In the mid 1940’s to mid 1950’s, Woolworth’s was my go-to store for everything. Popularly known as a “five and dime” store, I called it the five-and-ten and went there every Saturday to spend my weekly allowance of 25 cents. It was where I was taught the value of money and how to get the most of the little I had to spend. It was where I was taught right from wrong, and was sent back to return the box of crayons I had stolen and to apologize to the store manager. Woolworth’s was where my mother went for her household supplies and my school supplies, and where we went for an occasional lunch to share a toasted cheese sandwich and hot apple dumpling. In the 1970’s, malls and discount giants like Walmart started changing the way Americans shopped and, by 1997, the Woolworth chain officially ceased to exist.

During the 50’s and 60’s,Howard Johnson’s, was our place to eat on the road on our annual trips to Waltham, MA to spend vacation time with Mom’s family. We went with my aunt and uncle in their car. They wouldn’t think of eating at any other stop along the way. “Keep your eye out for the orange roof,” my uncle would tell me. My aunt was a “fuss pot” who was very particular about her food. At home, when we ate out, she insisted on Schrafft’s and, on the road, HoJo’s. We had the same meal every time: a hot dog for me; tuna salad on a roll for Mom; a fried clam roll for my uncle, and grilled cheese-and-tomato for my aunt. Though Hojo’s had 28 flavors of ice cream, our dessert never varied—vanilla milkshakes for everyone. By 2000, it had become quicker and just as affordable to grab a bite at one of the fast-food restaurants on the interstate highways and by 2022, the last Howard Johnson’s restaurant, up at Lake George, closed for good.

Kodak’s was the only name for a camera that I knew. Kodak cameras were designed to be simple point-and-shoots, so user friendly even a child could use it. Kodak introduced rhw Brownie in 1900; it was an inexpensive cardboard box that cost $1 and popularized snapshot photography. Over its 86 year production span, Kodak released many versions of the Brownie. The Baby Brownie, my very first camera, came out in 1939, the year I was born, and I got one for my 12^th birthday. Made from Bakelite and plastic, it cost eight to ten dollars (equivalent to $350 today). When I was 15, I got a Brownie Hawkeye which became a huge commercial success because of its large waist level viewfinder. I don’t recall owning any camera other than a Kodak.

I remember Pan American Airlines as the symbol of glamorous air travel, and Pan Am was what I flew on my very first flight. In fact, I was the first person in my family to fly. I was 21 and went to Mexico City with my husband for our honeymoon. That was 1960. By the late 1970’s, rising competition and fuel costs led to mounting losses and debt and in 1990 Pan Am shut down.

Back in the early 2000’s, Border’s Books was my lunchtime go-to place when I worked midtown. It had a bookstore in my office building and I spent many lunch hours sitting in a cushy armchair, browsing through books, nibbling on a sandwich and sipping an icy mocha. Border’s corporate office was in the World Trade Center and it closed shortly after 9/11. It was acquired by Barnes & Noble, a national chain which, in my mind, has never matched Border’s cozy space, pleasant staff and just-the-right-size café.

Blockbuster Video was my husband Richard’s go-to place. When we lived in Bronxville, we’d go to the store on Central Avenue ever Friday night and, after an hour of pondering the many possibilities—Blockbusters had an inventory of over 12,000 VHS and Beta tapes— we’d leave with three or four videos for our weekend’s entertainment. Years later, when we moved to the Upper West Side, we spent many evenings at the Blockbuster’s near Lincoln Center. It became one of our regular destinations: we’d take a pleasant walk down Broadway to 66^th street, getting in some exercise, rent a few videos, and then walk back, getting more exercise, and feeling somewhat virtuous by the time we got home. In 2004, Blockbusters filed for bankruptcy caused primarily by Netflix’s streaming services and Redbox’s kiosk rentals.

To my recollection, since Woolworth’s closed, there has not been a store to replace it, where one could go for every day essentials, ie, pencils, crayons, notebooks, comic books, candy, gum, games, playing cards, Simplicity patterns, needles and thread, scissors, shoe laces, shoe polish, nail polish and nail polish remover, mascara and mascara remover, face powder, hand creams, and body lotions. Now I have to stop and think of where to go, maybe Michael’s comes the closest, or I order online straight from the manufacturer. But how long will my current go-to-places continue to exist, I often wonder, like Michael’s, Marshall’s, TJMaxx, Home Goods and Staples?

But mostly I continue to marvel at what an enterprising and resourceful one-stop store Woolworth’s was and how lucky I was to have been one of its customers. Life was so simple then, though I don’t remember thinking so at the time.