ON THE STREETS WHERE i'VE SHOPPED

I didn't and don't do much recreational shopping on rainy days.  Rainy days are only for necessary shopping.  But over my lifetime, I have done my fair share of shopping - rain or shine. :)

It all began when I was around 7 or 8 when Mom would give me a few coins with which to buy her and Dad something for their birthdays or Christmas such as nails for Dad, and bobby-pins for Mom which I bought at the local dime store on Fairmont Avenue a couple of blocks from home.

This picture only shows one end of the building where the dime store was located.  This end of the small complex building housed the local drug store which had a small counter where one could get coffee or tea, sodas, milkshakes, ice cream cones, sandwiches, and pie or cake.  There was another shop of some kind between the drug store and the dime store which was kind of in the middle of the complex with another store of some sort on the other end of the dime store.  On the other side of the street was a grocery store, a beauty parlor, a barbershop, and Orton’s Ice Cream Parlor.

From that small beginning, then, I grew up, graduated from high school, and went to work in San Francisco.  Now I had a real salary – not just a handout from Mom or babysitting money, and my true shopping days began in earnest! J

On Market Street – The Emporium in San Francisco.  Many’s the time I’d hop on the Shoppers’ Shuttle bus & zip up to the Emporium on my lunch hour to shop.  It was a great department store where you could find just about anything you needed or wanted – especially clothing.  Back then they had all manner of pleated wool skirts – I loved the Pendletons – and lovely sweaters to match.

Some days, however, I’d rather poke around in Woolworth’s which was almost right across the street (Market) from the Emporium on the corner of Powell Street with its cable cars.  It was fun watching the cable cars turn around for the return trip up the hill.  People would get together and help the cable car operator turn them around by pushing & pulling.

If I didn’t take the Shoppers’ Shuttle to the Emporium or Woolworth’s on Market Street, then I took it to Union Square at Geary and Stockton streets to shop at The City of Paris, or peek around at the much too expensive things at I. Magnin’s just for fun.  The large white building was I. Magnin’s.  It’s now Macy’s.  The City of Paris was across Stockton Street to the left.  You can see a small image of the Eiffel Tower on top of it.  The City of Paris is now gone and the building houses Neiman-Marcus.  There were other stores there too around the corner from I. Magnin’s.  I think, if I’m remembering correctly, Joseph Magnin’s was just down the street at Stockton and O’Farrell Streets.  Joseph was the son of Isaac Magnin.  The son & father were rivals in business, but Joseph Magnin catered to the younger set as the ad poster below indicates.  There was a Joseph Magnin store in Oakland where I used to shop when I was working in Oakland and I’ll get to that in a bit.

Ad for Joseph Magnin's

If I didn’t take the Shoppers’ Shuttle to Union Square, then I took it to The White House department store on Sutter Street.  I even did a little modeling for them for a while. (but not on my lunch hours.) 

There was a popular discount store called Sugarman’s on Front Street just around the block from where I worked on Pine Street in San Francisco, so sometimes on my lunch hour I would walk down there to see what new things they had at half-off prices.  It was funny.  My desk at work was just inside our dept. where I could see folks getting on the elevators after lunch & it was easy to see when Sugarman’s had new things because people were coming back loaded with identifiable bags from the store.  I still have one of the beautiful blouses I bought there at half price I never could have afforded otherwise.  It’s been packed away for years because I’m no longer the slim young person I was back then, but I loved it and couldn’t bear to get rid of it.  Maybe one day I’ll fit into it again – who knows? J

When I transferred to my company’s office in Oakland I soon became a regular shopper at H.C. Capwell’s Department Store at the corners of Telegraph, Twentieth, & Broadway Streets.  I passed the store every day on my way to and from work.   They had a wonderful basement dept. where one could find quality clothing at lesser prices – usually things that hadn’t sold well upstairs for one reason or another.  But the biggest draw down there for me was their large jewelry counter with what, today, we would call “bling”.  I especially loved their painted metal flowers and the like and still have some of them.

Just down Webster Street from my office in Oakland at Twentieth & Webster was the Kaiser Center.  They had a small inside shopping ‘mall’.  They also had a wonderful cafeteria where I’d have lunch looking out over Lake Merritt, then take the elevator down to the shopping mall.  I don’t remember the other stores in the small mall, but Joseph Magnin’s was the anchor store there.

I don’t know that this was THE Joseph Magnin’s in the Kaiser Center, but it reminds me very much of the one there when I frequented it.  I didn’t go there on my own at first – knowing that it catered to high end folks.  But one of the gals I worked with, who came from a very affluent family, shopped there all the time and one day, on our lunch hour, she inveigled me to come with her.  She said they were having a sale on nylons (this was back in pre panty hose days when nylons came in pairs)

So I went with her.  She said she was going to buy twelve and I remember thinking “Wow – 12 pairs of nylons.  The most I ever bought at one time was maybe a box of 3.  But it was a good sale.  My jaw must’ve dropped a mile, however, when she blithely ordered 12 BOXES at 3 pairs per box.  Holy moly!

After that she wanted to look around so I tailed after her mumbling something about not being able to afford anything in the store.  But she surprised me, telling me they didn’t fool around with their sales.  When they had a sale things were immediately half price and not too long later, 75% off.  And so I began to look around, found out she was right, and wound up over time buying several things there – a beautiful pair of light weight Italian made red sandal heels for one, which I loved.  And a pair of black pumps I had resoled 6 times before the cobbler told me he just couldn’t do them again.  Now that’s quality!  I don’t know it the little mall is still there?

On weekends I would shop closer to home.  Hinks Department Store on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley (near left) was a favorite place.  Lots of good stuff there.

Even closer to home was H.C. Capwell’s Department Store in the El Cerrito Plaza shopping center at the corner of San Pablo and Fairmont Avenues.  When I was living at home (in El Cerrito) the Plaza was just a short walk of a few blocks.  When I moved into my apartment, it was even closer.  Of course there were many other stores in the Plaza I gave my business to, as well.

The very first place I went shopping after getting married was the gift shop at the “Trees of Mystery” on highway 101 in Requa, CA where we lived at the time.  I was looking for a gift for someone so went to this gift shop to see what I could find.  The only problem with the Trees of Mystery gift shop was that while a person was in the shop looking around, another person was out in the parking lot busily wiring a “Trees of Mystery” bumper sticker to one’s car.

From Requa we moved 2 hours northeast to Gasquet (Gaskee), CA where I collected our mail, shopped for groceries, & we occasionally dined at the local bar/café called the Black Bear Lounge off highway 199.  The post office was on the near end of the building, the grocery store was in the middle.  It had a huge stone fireplace in the middle of it with barrel chairs sitting in front of it with a table where some of the old fellows would sit playing cards or dicing.  Perfect for a country grocery store image.  The bar & café were on the far end of the building.

I also shopped in Crescent City 18 miles west for larger items – usually at Safeway for grocery items, at Rexall Drugs for things there, and there was a neat department store on 3^rd Street if I remember correctly where I found everything else we needed. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any pictures of the town related to the time-frame in which I would have been shopping there.

From Gasquet, then, we moved to Oakhurst, CA northeast of Fresno.

One of my favorite places to shop when we lived in Oakhurst – an hour’s drive down the mountain to Fresno – was Gemco on West Shaw Ave. in Fresno.  Like “K-Mart” & the future “Walmart”, “Gemco” had everything you might need in the way of everything – clothes, tools, sports equipment, household needs, etc. etc., and a full grocery store (“Lucky’s”).  It was my last stop of the day, saving the grocery shopping till last before heading home.  Unfortunately “Gemco” stores are no more – gone the way of “K-Mart” and the like.

From Oakhurst we moved to Tuolumne County, CA which included the town of Sonora where I did most of my shopping.

There are four sizeable shopping centers in Sonora, three of which are located on Mono Way – the “Sonora Plaza” on Mono Way and Greenley Road, “The Junction” on Mono Way and Tuolumne Road, and “Timber Hills” on Mono Way.  Timber Hills is kind of a misnomer.  The builders removed all the trees off a hilltop and flattened the hill off to make room for the shopping center, then named it “Timber Hills”. Not sure where the logic in that came from.  I think someone thought it was a good joke!

And then there’s “The Crossroads” shopping center with stores like Walmart and Staples at the crossroads of Sanguinetti and Old Wards Ferry Roads.  And Lowe’s is located right there on Old Wards Ferry Road as well.

I sometimes shop on Washington Street in Sonora, CA – that is when I feel like dealing with the traffic and scarce parking.  There are all manner of antique shops, thrift shops, cooperative shops, clothing and shoe shops as well as plenty of eateries on Washington Street.

One of my favorites is the co-op called the Pine Tree Peddlers.  There are all sorts of wonderful things in there hard to resist making it a dangerous place to peruse, but I love to poke around in there.

And that pretty much sums up "On The Streets Where I've Shopped" throughout my lifetime – so far, anyway! 

:-> 

La Nightingail