Woolworth's

[PrettySquareGal]

I recall going to Woolworth's on 59th Street in NYC after school. Although I could choose from all kinds of eateries, I was always attracted to the lunch counter in there. It felt safe and removed from the rest of the city. In it, only "old people" would be eating or drinking coffee. I can still see the rail thin elderly lady working the counter in her uniform and hair net.

We didn't have money growing up, but I worked odd jobs and would save to buy myself trinkets from there. I'd walk down the aisles, making up my mind as to what I would buy myself.

I miss Woolworth's.

Do you have any Woolworth memories?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The thing that stands out most for me at my childhood Woolworths was the *smell* -- they used to treat the wooden board floors with linseed oil, and when you'd walk in, that distinctive scent would hit you first thing. And anything you bought there would smell "Woolworthy" for a long time after.

We also had McLellan's, which was sort of a downscale cousin to Woolworth's. It was smaller, and quite a bit darker inside, and didn't have that distinctive scent. I have two main memories of that store -- it was where I always went to get my pencil box and supplies before the start of each school year, and one morning in 1973, I stood across the street with hundreds of other people and watched it burn to the ground in a spectacular fire that people still talk about to this day. The store had an art-deco aluminum facade on the front that fell away in one piece, toppling forward into the middle of the street, and revealing the roaring blaze inside.

Here in Rockland, up until about ten years ago, we had a downtown Newberry's, and I used to eat at the lunch counter there quite often: the same ladies had worked there for decades, and had utterly mastered the art of Cheap Food. I miss it.

 

[Rosie]

I LOVED Woolworth's. There was one on the corner of Fulton Street downtown Brooklyn that we always went into. When I went to high school, my school was like three blocks from Woolworth's and we went there at least two or three times a week.

My mom would go there for plants, my brother and dad would get fishing equipment there. I went (because I was little and had to go) but, I loved the candies, cookies, and of course the toys. We went to Woolworth's every year to stock up on school supplies because in my parent's house NO ONE would EVER run out of school supplies if they could help it. (On a side note, I didn't finish all of the looseleaf my parents bought for us until about three years ago and that IS NOT a lie lol) When I began crocheting, I would go to Woolworth's to get craft supplies and then when Christmas came around, it was a good place for a teenager to get some cute inexpensive Xmas gifts.

I was going to insert a pic of the Brooklyn Woolworth's but can't seem to find it.

 

[Big Man]

I remember the Woolworth's in Morganton, Marion, and Asheville (all NC towns) for three different reasons. In Morganton, I remember eating at the lunch counter from time to time, and also buying model airplanes there as a youngster. The Woolworth's in Marion I remember because my aunt Sara always took me there just before Memorial Day and again just before Veterans Day to buy little American flags that we then took around the old country cemeteries and placed on the graves of our family members who had been in the service. I remember the Woolworth's in Asheville because when we would visit the "big city" I would go there and get a bag of candy.

I hadn't thought about these places in a long time. Thanks PSG for bring it up.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

These are wonderful memories!

 

[scotrace]

The old Woolworth building downtown here is now a Dollar General - it's sort of sad to see the old place so cheap and tarted looking.

The toy aisle had a cap pistol that I STILL wish mom had gotten for me!

 

[pretty faythe]

In high school we used to walk to the Woolworths for lunch, that was after they closed the A@W (when it used to be by itself, not with Long Johns or KFC or who ever else they are with now a days). There also used to be a huge Woolworths at the Boulevard Mall, I remember going to the downstairs section and seeing the Fall Out sign there. Some thing that has always stuck out in my mind. Yeah, I miss Woolworths too. I remember a t-shirt that I got there "There's nothing wrong with my ATTITUDE".

 

[newspapercowboy]

Woolies

My old man, on a day off, buying me a lime rickey at the soda fountain...maybe 1963

 

[RetroMom]

lunch at Woolworths...

I miss Woolworths too!

When I was in Jr. High we used to go there for a hot dog and soda after school. But this was in the early '80's and had all the cheesy plastic dining furniture, not the great soda fountains of days past...

When I was elementary school age, I remember going to a larger "city" Woolworths that had 2 dining areas. The lunch counter and booth area where we ate burgers and fries and a more "elegant" area that had real tables and chairs, carpeting and even a chandelier I think they served more of a buffet meal there. Being a little kid, I thought this was where the "rich" people must go!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

"And STAY outa the Woolsworth"!!
HD

 

[Big Man]

"Is that just this Woolsworth or all of them?"

 

[Big Man]

 

[6StringShooter]

Well, you lying... unconstant... succubus!

Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can't swear at my fianc?©!

Oh, yeah? Well, you can't marry my wife!

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

"I aaaammmmm a maaaaaan of constant soroooow, I've seen trouble all my days"
"I bid fareweeeellll to ole' Kinteckeee, the place where IIIII was born and raised"
You all are makin' me want to watch this movie!! Great film

I had a Woolworth's down the street from the house I grew up in in Cranston, Rhode Island. I have so many memories of that place. Like Lizzie, I remember the smell. Except instead of Linseed Oil ours smelled like deep fried something or another. I remember going there with my mom, having lunch at the counter, then going shopping. In Cranston at that time it was the only store to buy clothes. Usually a few times a year we'd take a shopping trip to Boston for the clothes we needed, but for things needed during the in between time we'd go to Woolworth.
The original Woolworth building in our town is still there, with the big tiles by the front door that spell out Woolworth. The rest of the area is now filled with chain restaurants, chain stores, every modern day amenity imaginable. I'm not sure if the kids living in that neighborhood now realize that just 25 years ago the members of this once very small community had to drive over an hour to get to shoppes like the ones they now have in their back yard.
I miss the Woolworth My hometown no longer looks the same to me. Although there were a group of run down buildings from the early 1800's that they began restoring a couple of years ago. They kept the original structures and re-built them directly from pictures they had of the original buildings. They were lovely until Starbucks and The Gap moved into them. I wish they would have turned the area into a residential zone. It would have been so cool to live in one of those old places, and the neighborhood has enough fast food coffee joints and jean stores. In my eyes, urban planning gone wrong. I want my old town back!

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

The old Woolworth building downtown here is now a Dollar General - it's sort of sad to see the old place so cheap and tarted looking.

The toy aisle had a cap pistol that I STILL wish mom had gotten for me!

"You'll shoot your eye out kid!!"

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Of constant sorrow,....

All this here talk about the movie prompted me to put the CD in my PC. It's got a nifty screen saver iffen y'all have a copy and care tuh check it out.

 

[Atomic Glee]

From my memories, there were still a few Woolworth's around these parts when I was a kid, but they were gone before I got too old.

The coolest Woolworth's around here was the one downtown, of course. It had its own building, built in 1926, and was open until 1990. Fortunately, the Woolworth's Building survived - today, it has a Joseph A. Bank, an art gallery, and office space. It's a cute building:

 

[Lincsong]

Aren't there still Woolworth's in Europe?[huh]

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

In the U.K.

There are still Wollworth's. Or so it seems from googling.
Lots of interesting history on this site, in particular, some WW2 history.

http://museum.woolworths.co.uk/

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

When my family moved to Hilo, Hawaii when I was 9 in 1970, the only departments stores there were Woolworth's and S.H. Kress. There was a Sears, but it was just a small storefront and anything you wanted had to be ordered and it would take months to arrive.

Woolworth's had a lunch counter which Mom and I frequented, at it had a great selection of model kits and HO scale model trains.

Now that I think of it, it had a distinctive smell, too, but I can't recall exactly what it was.

When I worked for H&R Block in Hilo in the 1990s, one of the veteran tax preparers was a Woolworth's retiree.