When I was little, going shopping in town was going “uptown.” I always thought it was because we had to drive up the big hill on First Street to get to the shopping district, such as it was.

We would go uptown for various reasons. Mostly, I remember tagging along with Mom to buy something at the drug store, clothing shop (there were a bunch), shoe store,  hardware store or dime store. This was long, long before Walmart came to town.

Sometimes we’d go to an office supply store called Post’s. Back then, it seemed like every store name, or most of them anyway, ended with an apostrophe and an “s.” That’s my theory on why people sometimes say “Walmart’s.”

I was very little when we went to Post’s one day. Within our house and around our circle of friends, people called the lady proprietor of that store “Old Lady Post.” Not an appropriate name, of course. But that’s what they called her.

I must have liked Old Lady Post, because I always looked for her when we went in there.  Maybe she gave out candy or something.

One day, realizing she was not in the store, I innocently asked Mr. Post where “Old Lady Post” was. I used those exact words. He just about got down laughing, and I’m sure my parents or whomever I was with were a little red-faced.  I’m not sure I remember it right, but I think he actually picked up the phone and called her at home; telling her there was a little boy asking where Old Lady Post was. I’m not sure if she thought it was funny or not, and I don’t remember going in there much after that.

Going clothes shopping with Mom was a little boring, but I always found things to do. I thought I was pretty well-behaved. When my brother came along and was old enough to manipulate, we could make pretty good sport out of hiding in racks of clothing. To me, many of the sales ladies were well-dressed, snooty and perhaps stern ladies. If my mother caught us acting up too much, we were relegated to a corner of the store to sit until she was finished. Sitting was the worst punishment.

At one end of the uptown area was the shoe store where they would measure our feet and fit us with new Keds or some Buster Brown dress shoes.  I think we got some type of treat when we went in there.  There were shoes called Red Goose shoes, too, and I remember getting some type of golden egg once. Perhaps it was laid by the old goose herself, but I have no idea what was inside.

Mom got her hair done uptown for many years, too. Yep, I tagged along there and remember watching in wonder as my mother’s good friend and hairdresser teased hair until all of the women looked like they were wearing big, bouffant helmets.

Western Auto was a fun store to go to because there were always brand new, shiny bikes and trikes in there. There were wonderful wagons and shiny big lawn mowers to sit on and have fun with. I don’t recall buying much, but I was great at window shopping.

We were blessed to have a place called Sophie’s on the corner of the first block of uptown. It was also called the Corner Candy Store, because in addition to being a soda fountain and short order lunch spot, it used to be a place where one could get homemade candy.

By the time I came along, Sophie’s was a place to get a sandwich and fries, an old-fashioned soda mixed up with carbonated water and syrup, or ice cream. Sophie, whose family had owned the place, was an eccentric lady who packed the dusty shelves around the restaurant with guns, ammo and various other things. I never figured that out, but I knew she sold quite a bit of those to folks around town. Despite the cluttered, dusty appearance of much of that place, we still liked to stop in there for a treat.

Keen-Norris Drug Store had a little lunch counter in the back. I remember going to the dark, cool paint/hardware store, the tiny little narrow newsstand and a clothing store called Spurgeon’s that had this grand staircase up the middle leading to children’s clothing upstairs.

Probably my favorite place to go, though, was the dime store. It was really called The Index, but it seemed we had our own names for many of the stores and never really called them by their given names.

The dime store had wonderful smells coming from the middle of the store where you could see glass cases of all types of candy.  Maybe that smell was roasted peanuts or popcorn. I can’t remember for sure. To the right was a very large (to me) toy department.  Sometimes, we’d get a little bag of chocolate stars from the candy counter. I remember Mom taking me up there to buy a little pair of sunglasses when I was in second grade. Everyone was wearing sunglasses to recess, you see.

I’m constantly telling my own children and my students about shopping when I was a kid. I don’t know why. They surely can’t understand or even envision what I’m talking about. No matter how hard I try, I tend to travel back to those days more often than not.  More often as I grow older.

I hope readers aren’t getting too tired of my trips back in the time machine. Main Street seems to be a frequent stop.