My sister related a story to me earlier today about a memory she had of downtown Tucson as a little girl.
“There were three dime stores downtown,” she related to me. “I remember the cosmetic counter at McLellans, the lunch counter at Woolworths, and the escalator at Kresge’s.”
The “Five and Dime” stores she mentions were anchors along the Congress Street-Stone Avenue axis of Downtown in the early 1950s. They were interspersed with the Montgomery-Ward and Sears and Roebuck catalogue retailers as well as the fine department stores. Steinfeld’s, Levy’s and Jacome’s held down the Stone Avenue strip now occupied by government buildings and office spaces.
One of the special treats she remembers when our mom would buy her to a bottle of Blue Waltz perfume.
“I was so excited,” she said. “The perfume was in a little heart-shaped bottle. I think it cost a quarter.”
What a special treat for a 9-year-old girl shopping with her mom like a grown-up. She was only 8 when our parents moved she and our brother to Tucson from Michigan in 1951. They lived on the “outskirts” of town near what is now Reid Park, so going downtown to visit our pharmacist dad in his store was a treat. And usually involved shopping in the aforementioned stores.
You can see more photos of some of those early family days here.
Relentless
(*photos by the author and courtesy eBay and Amazon)
