That picture brought back a flood of good memories of when I would meet Mother downtown on Saturdays and we would have lunch at Hollanders and take in a movie.
She worked for Daugherty Davis and just worked a half day on Saturdays.
When I started working downtown many of the stores were still there and it was a wonderland at Christmas time.
Does anyone remember when the various local church choirs use to sing Christmas carols on the Square in front of the manger scene? And the Salvation Army band played in front of the Wick building?
When walking into Strauss you were knocked over by the smells of expensive perfumes and they had the most beautiful window displays, and we all waited for the day the curtan went up on one of the windows and when they were finished re decorating, people would gather around to watch them open the window back up and had a gorgeous Christmas scene complete with the manger scene.
Everyone thought it was wonderful that a big department store would devote one of their main windows to a religious theme display.
McKelvey's only had an absolutely awful Santa scene and businesses around McKelvey's use to complain about that awful racket of Santa laughing that came out of a portable PA speaker set up over the window.
To be perfectly honest, I'd give anything to see some of the old holiday trimmings brought back, even the McKelvey's Santa, but unfortunately there are those Scrooges that would take the city to court if they did.
