Shopping in Downtown Butler

A recent conversation about Aland's Toy Store got me to thinking about life and shopping in Butler, PA circa 1968:

Murphy's: A five-and-ten, where you could buy nail polish remover, seamless stockings, shaving cream, sci-fi magazines, shoe-bows, pop-beads, Blue Waltz perfume, wrapping paper, paper dolls, and shoe polish.

Woolworths: Just like Murphy's, but with a lunch counter. You could buy a real ice cream soda, or if you had serious money, a hamburger and fries. They also had pantyhose, 45 rpm records, curtains, fabric, sewing patterns (downstairs), pinwheels, and celophane.

Troutman's: Very "New York-ish" mannequins, with arms but not hands. Scarves encased in glass. Boots on pedestals. Felt hats on head sculptures. Santa Claus in the window, actually bowing, bending, waving, and nodding.

Honses: The knock-you-over scent of eucalyptus everywhere, when you walked in the store. Monster furniture in every pattern of brocade ever conceived. Tall vases, shiny veneers. Sparkling tigers, taller than me.

Bill's Bargain Barn: If you had 50 cents, you could spend it there and fill a bag. Oh, I don't know...ribbon, strips of sticky stars, pick-up sticks, glue, toothpaste, felt remnants, bolts, shoestrings, cat toys, gold braid, buttons, Old Spice, umbrellas, neckties...

Jaffe's: I couldn't afford to even breathe the air in there. But it was fun to slink around in between the clothing racks. You had to get dressed up to shop there, and I did buy a christening dress there for my daughter. Grandest event of my life.

The Darling Shop: OMG...dresses, dresses, dresses! Sundresses, day dresses, dress-up dresses, evening dresses! Nothing was more girly than that.

Altmires: This was a sewing store...they had fabrics, floor-to-ceiling. Needles, cutting-boards, patterns, scissors that cut in zig-zags. They had bobbins, and sewing machine attachments that looked downright evil. They had artificial bodies that could be manipulated (contorted) to replicate the shape of any human being, living or dead.

King's Jewelers: Felt like a sanctuary, even if you were just picking up a fixed watch. You whispered in there, and you never looked up the stairs. In fact, you didn't look anywhere except straight ahead.

Kinney's Shoes: This was a fun store where they measured your feet with a slide rule. I could have had clown feet and still felt like a queen when that man measured my foot.

The one store I loved, that I can't remember the name of, is the stationery store. They had paper of all sorts, tablets, notepads, pens, cards, ink pads, stamps...I just can't remember the name. It was up by the Courthouse. Anyone remember?

On Musicals,,,

My mother never liked musicals, and I could never figure out why. My mother was very practical in some ways, but mostly I remember her as being very creative...and not liking musicals doesn't fit with that profile. I think she had a mental block, which but for that mental block, she would have loved musicals.

Who does not adore life set to music? Dancing. Rhythm. Continuity. I have always thought that the only thing missing from ordinary life is a musical score. My life would have mostly piano music, since there is nothing musical that a piano can't express. What a powerful phrase that is..."nothing musical that a piano can't express."

I should learn to play the piano.