Christmas Lights, Big City
The day after Thanksgiving is known as the biggest shopping day of the year. There are even some families who subject themselves to the madness because it's a tradition. When I was little, we had our own tradition. Every year, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my mother, my grandmother, my Aunt Mary and myself went into Pittsburgh to shop. I have a feeling it may be a futile effort for me to describe how big a deal this actually was. This was...believe it or not...before there were malls. There were three big department stores in Pittsburgh...Horne's, Gimbels, and Kaufmann's. They had small stores in a few of the suburban shopping centers, but for the real shopping experience, you had to go 'downtown'.
A large city can be an awesome thing even to an adult....to a small child it's overwhelming. Thus, my small child's mind grasped onto the small things, which to adults would probably be inconsequential trivialities...but to me, these small things were what these trips were all about.
We always went to Horne's first. We parked in a large garage across the street. Who else but a kid would consider an indoor parking lot an adventure? I loved it....slowly rising above the streets, with glimpses of the outside peeking in as you made your way upward. Then we crossed the street, went through the huge, heavy brass revolving doors into......Christmas! Back then people didn't have their decorations up a week after Halloween. The store decorations were the first signs of Christmas I would encounter, and it was usually enough to make me breathless. Trees everywhere...red velvet draped on the gold chandeliers...to a little kid, it was just a stunning thing to see. We'd wander around the ground floor a bit, but I'd always be anxious to ascend to the upper floors. Why? Because I loved the escalators. I loved watching them, I loved riding them...they were like magic. We'd go up to the mazzanine, home of the biggest ladies room I'd seen up to that point in my life. You could leave your coats, gloves, hats, boots, and other winter paraphenalia at the coat check there, and shop unencumbered.
After shedding our outdoor attire, we ascended into the upper floors of the store. Now, seeing as how I was a card-carrying Little Kid, Local #259, you'd think I'd be practically peeing my red tights in anticipation of seeing the Toy Department. Well...you'd be incorrect. Oh, don't get me wrong...I liked the Toy Department....but my Mecca was the Christmas Decorations. Oh yes. That was what I wanted to see. All those lights and trees and ornaments. And the highlight of the day....I got to pick one special ornament that was mine, to go on the tree. Over the years I picked some real doozies....but I managed some tasteful ones too. Of course, I still have them all on my tree now.
We'd go to the floor where the toys were, then, and you could see Santa, elevated above the masses as the escalator rose. For some reason, I never went to see Santa. Maybe even then I had an aversion to standing in long lines. The only Santa whose lap I ever perched myself on was at a smaller department store down the street. Maybe he was just more approachable. One thing that all the big stores had was a little store-within-a-store that only kids were allowed into. They had various items for moms, dads, siblings...nothing costing over five dollars. This was a fantastic thing to me. I loved buying gifts with nobody seeing me do it. I still have the miniature shopping bags from those 'kid stores'.
A huge event in the course of the day was lunch. Horne's had a 'tearoom', and we'd stand in line, waiting for it to open it's graceful double French doors. Now, this was one time I definitely didn't mind standing in line, as the line ran directly between the candy and the books...aka Megan Dies And Goes To Heaven. You know those trays of glazed dried fruit that you get from Harry and David's, or Swiss Colony? They had those there in the candy department. I thought they were absolutely beautiful....shiny and glowing and more gorgeous than any jewelry. I ran back and forth between the glazed fruit and the Dr. Seuss books having a wonderful time. The tearoom was very elegant...it was probably the first place I ever encountered linen napkins. I'd stare at my Santa face-shaped childrens' menu....but I always got the same thing. Oddly enough, I don't remember what it was! I do remember always getting hot chocolate, and getting this jello with fruit in it...it had a tiny dollop of whipped cream, and was sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.
In the afternoon, we'd usually walk to one of the other stores. To a small person, this can be an overwhelming thing...all those tall buildings...all those people. Then back into the warmth and light of yet another red velvet-bedecked oasis.
At the end of the long day, we'd drive home through small towns along the Allegheny River, each with it's own Christmas lights for me to oooh and aaah over. We'd arrive home, open the door, and my poor, deserted grandfather would look at us as if to say 'I didn't think you were EVER coming back!' As tradition had it, I'd go upstairs and change into my robe and slippers, then we'd show off all our loot....except for the things I wasn't supposed to see, of course. My feet were tired as I ate a traditional barley sugar lollipop, or nibbled a piece of traditional fruit-shaped marzipan. I'd admire my latest new ornament, and hide away my stash from the kids-only store.
Now, who's to say that some kid somewhere may one day have fond memories of storming a Kmart at 6 AM, or driving around a mall parking lot for an hour looking for an open space? It could happen! But.....I'll take my memories any day. ;)
A large city can be an awesome thing even to an adult....to a small child it's overwhelming. Thus, my small child's mind grasped onto the small things, which to adults would probably be inconsequential trivialities...but to me, these small things were what these trips were all about.
We always went to Horne's first. We parked in a large garage across the street. Who else but a kid would consider an indoor parking lot an adventure? I loved it....slowly rising above the streets, with glimpses of the outside peeking in as you made your way upward. Then we crossed the street, went through the huge, heavy brass revolving doors into......Christmas! Back then people didn't have their decorations up a week after Halloween. The store decorations were the first signs of Christmas I would encounter, and it was usually enough to make me breathless. Trees everywhere...red velvet draped on the gold chandeliers...to a little kid, it was just a stunning thing to see. We'd wander around the ground floor a bit, but I'd always be anxious to ascend to the upper floors. Why? Because I loved the escalators. I loved watching them, I loved riding them...they were like magic. We'd go up to the mazzanine, home of the biggest ladies room I'd seen up to that point in my life. You could leave your coats, gloves, hats, boots, and other winter paraphenalia at the coat check there, and shop unencumbered.
After shedding our outdoor attire, we ascended into the upper floors of the store. Now, seeing as how I was a card-carrying Little Kid, Local #259, you'd think I'd be practically peeing my red tights in anticipation of seeing the Toy Department. Well...you'd be incorrect. Oh, don't get me wrong...I liked the Toy Department....but my Mecca was the Christmas Decorations. Oh yes. That was what I wanted to see. All those lights and trees and ornaments. And the highlight of the day....I got to pick one special ornament that was mine, to go on the tree. Over the years I picked some real doozies....but I managed some tasteful ones too. Of course, I still have them all on my tree now.
We'd go to the floor where the toys were, then, and you could see Santa, elevated above the masses as the escalator rose. For some reason, I never went to see Santa. Maybe even then I had an aversion to standing in long lines. The only Santa whose lap I ever perched myself on was at a smaller department store down the street. Maybe he was just more approachable. One thing that all the big stores had was a little store-within-a-store that only kids were allowed into. They had various items for moms, dads, siblings...nothing costing over five dollars. This was a fantastic thing to me. I loved buying gifts with nobody seeing me do it. I still have the miniature shopping bags from those 'kid stores'.
A huge event in the course of the day was lunch. Horne's had a 'tearoom', and we'd stand in line, waiting for it to open it's graceful double French doors. Now, this was one time I definitely didn't mind standing in line, as the line ran directly between the candy and the books...aka Megan Dies And Goes To Heaven. You know those trays of glazed dried fruit that you get from Harry and David's, or Swiss Colony? They had those there in the candy department. I thought they were absolutely beautiful....shiny and glowing and more gorgeous than any jewelry. I ran back and forth between the glazed fruit and the Dr. Seuss books having a wonderful time. The tearoom was very elegant...it was probably the first place I ever encountered linen napkins. I'd stare at my Santa face-shaped childrens' menu....but I always got the same thing. Oddly enough, I don't remember what it was! I do remember always getting hot chocolate, and getting this jello with fruit in it...it had a tiny dollop of whipped cream, and was sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.
In the afternoon, we'd usually walk to one of the other stores. To a small person, this can be an overwhelming thing...all those tall buildings...all those people. Then back into the warmth and light of yet another red velvet-bedecked oasis.
At the end of the long day, we'd drive home through small towns along the Allegheny River, each with it's own Christmas lights for me to oooh and aaah over. We'd arrive home, open the door, and my poor, deserted grandfather would look at us as if to say 'I didn't think you were EVER coming back!' As tradition had it, I'd go upstairs and change into my robe and slippers, then we'd show off all our loot....except for the things I wasn't supposed to see, of course. My feet were tired as I ate a traditional barley sugar lollipop, or nibbled a piece of traditional fruit-shaped marzipan. I'd admire my latest new ornament, and hide away my stash from the kids-only store.
Now, who's to say that some kid somewhere may one day have fond memories of storming a Kmart at 6 AM, or driving around a mall parking lot for an hour looking for an open space? It could happen! But.....I'll take my memories any day. ;)