When I was a kid, we lived within walking distance of the downtown Kenosha area. In those days, pre-mall, downtown was where it was at! Our downtown had all the stores anyone would ever need. There was Lepp's and Garb's - high end ladies fashion. Those were two stores we could only dream of shopping in because they were priced way out of our league. There was Bidinger's - the music store. That was one of those great places where you could listen to the album before you decided to buy it. There was Phillip's. Phillip's was the store everyone went to when they needed a wedding gift. Lots of crystal and glassware, silver sets and china. Very upscale! There was Barden's - another mostly clothing store but not too pricey. It was the only store in town that I could buy those cotton handkerchiefs my Mom used. I would always get her a couple of new ones for Christmas. Barden's had an elevator! That was almost unheard of back then in Kenosha. There weren't a lot of two or three story buildings that had elevators for public use. And they also had this cool system when you purchased something. The sales clerk would attach your receipt or check on a chord and pulley thing that sent it to the main office upstairs. To me, as a kid, that was mysterious and cool! Another great store was Dickelman's. Dickelman's was the premiere toy store in town. Remember, this was before Toys r Us or any of those big chain store. Dickelman's was magical! Just looking in the window made me want everything in the store. I would make a mental Christmas list whenever I walked by!
But, by far, my all-time favorite store in downtown Kenosha was Woolworth's. At Woolworth's you could get anything you wanted. You needed buttons? They had 'em. You needed shoelaces and wanted to pick up the latest teen magazine? Woolworth's was the place to be. They had a great lunch counter where you could get real french fries and a soda and they even treated you nicely if you were a little kid. There was a photo booth to stick a quarter in and take goofy pictures with your pals. If you went up the escalator, there were knickknacks galore! My favs were the posed horse statues. I used to collect those when I was 8 or 9 years old. In the back of the store, past the Notions, you could even buy a pet!
Way in the back, Woolworth's sold small pets - parakeets, turtles, gold fish, white mice, gerbils and hamsters. I loved that aisle. I would go in there and watch those critters for hours and, sometimes, the lady back there would let me hold them too. My Dad got some parakeets there once. Mickey and Mikey were the terror of our living room because my Dad thought they should have free range. My Mom would curse at them as they would swoop down and try to nip the bobby pins from her hair. My brother brought home a series of doomed turtles. He would get them and keep them in one of those little plastic turtles dishes with the island and plastic palm tree in it. I say they were doomed because most of the time he would forget about them and they would die! Once he thought his turtle looked cold so he put it's habitat on the radiator. Well, they're supposed to be cold, you see, so that one didn't last long! My sister brought home a white mouse once. She carried it around in her sweater pocket where ever she went which, it seems, did not amuse the nuns at St. Joe's. I guess they frown upon bringing rodents to school. Go figure.
Oh, I had about a thousand goldfish from Woolworth's. Goldfish are a sort of disposable pet though. None of them lived very long in spite of my best efforts to keep their bowl clean and feed them everyday. My favorite pets to get at Woolworth's were hamsters. Cute little furry hamsters that I could hold and play with. I had three of them. Not all at once but three in a row. I think the first one I got was sick when I got him. I have always had this thing about taking in those creatures that look like no one else would ever want them and it was no different with that first hamster. I think the sales lady knew it was sick too because she gave me a discount and some free hamster stuff to go with it. I named him Rocky. Not after the Stallone character, he was named after the flying squirrel. If you're too young to know who that is, google it, you baby! Rocky died after about one month. I was so sad. My Dad helped me bury him in the back yard. He even gave him a little Irish blessing.
"May you be in heaven a half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead!" That was my Dad!
The second hamster, Priscilla, lived almost a a full year. He was great! Yes, Priscilla was a he. Hey, I was a kid! What did I know? I'm not exactly sure what killed Priscilla. I came home one day from school and he was lying motionless in his cage. Another sad burial and that was that! I was completely freaked out one day later when I saw that my dog, Do-Do, had dug poor Priscilla up and was batting him around like a hockey puck! The third, and final, hamster had the briefest existence known to hamsterdom. I saved my own allowance money and walked down to Woolworth's on a Saturday morning with the sole intention of getting myself another hamster. My Mom gave me her blessing and off I went. I took a long time deciding which one to get. The lady in the store let me hold and pet all of the available hamsters and finally;...FINALLY...I decided on a cute little red furry hamster whom I immediately named Georgie. The sales lady put him in one of the those cool small animal boxes with the breathing holes on the side. I gladly paid my...what was it...$2? Maybe $3? (I can't remember what hamsters were going for back then) and I ran all the way back to my block. Before I went home I stopped at my friend Janet's house to show her my new little furry friend. Sitting at her kitchen table, I gently opened the box and carefully lifted Georgie out to show her. Just as I was lifting him up he bit me! I mean, that little sucker really bit me!! He chomped down on my finger so hard and it took my by such surprise that I flinched, instinctively, and flapped my fingers as if flicking a booger! Georgie let go and flew across the kitchen suddenly smashing into the wall. He fell to the floor...deader than a doornail. That's right. My hamster Georgie lived all of 20 minutes in my care. I couldn't believe it. I was numb. I picked up his limp, lifeless body and put it back in the box. I walked home, all alone, and buried him in the back yard. When I walked into the house my Mom saw that I didn't have a new hamster with me and wondered where the heck I had been! I just walked to my room and lay down on my bed. I didn't talk about Georgie for the rest of the day. And, I never had another hamster in my life!
I see hamsters now, at Petco and Petland, and I think they're cute and think maybe it would be nice to have one. But then I think about Georgie and his short, traumatic life and I just walk on by!
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