Ghosts of Christmases
Past Part II
By Jon Gallagher
I grew up in the
Galesburg area during the turbulent 60s, a time marred by the political
assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, racial riots,
student protests and marches, and the Viet Nam War. Even with the violence of
the era, some of my most vivid memories are those associated with Downtown
Galesburg and the Christmas season.
We didn’t have a
Black Friday back then. There were no six hour sales with shoppers whipped into
a feeding frenzy by doorbuster specials. There were no malls or superstores
opening at an ungodly hour the day after Thanksgiving. There was no WalMart
putting up their Christmas displays before Halloween. It was a simple time
filled with the magic of the season, perfectly presented in a four block area
known as Downtown Galesburg.
As you bounced across
the Burlington Northern tracks at the east end of Main Street, you were
transported into a wonderland of sights and sounds. Decorations hung from the
street lights high overhead while merchants’ windows spilled a yellowish glow
onto the sidewalks outside the shops. It seems that music was piped in from
somewhere, coming from speakers that were invisible to my pre-teen eyes. Although
I can’t remember specifics, I know that whenever I hear the song “Silver
Bells,” I get a flashback of Downtown Galesburg from my youth. It seems that
the hanging decorations were either giant candy canes alternating with lighted
plastic faces of old St. Nick.
Sears was the first
store to get my attention as we entered Downtown. The store, located across
from the Post Office, would make a special section on the far west side that
housed their toy department. They only carried toys at Christmas time so a
little kid like me would know the season was getting close whenever they’d
start preparing the area a few weeks in advance. Across the street, Gamble’s
department store enticed shoppers into their midst with window displays.
Down the street,
Blacks Hardware sat across the street from Carson Pirie Scott. Diagonally, Osco
Drugs took up the south west corner of Main and Seminary. Bennett’s Unlimited
was located almost next door and they featured an assortment of stationary and
books. Even back then I was an avid reader, so that was one of my favorite
places to stop. J.C. Penney’s was a little further down the block just before
you got to the Bank of Galesburg. On the north side of Main Street, Leo Stein
Sporting Goods, the Platter, a small record shop, and Kline’s department store
were fixtures.
I don’t remember what
was in the Sav-A-Buk/Zephyr store, but just to the north of it, across from the
Smith and Allen Garage was a Meadow-Gold Dairy (I think that was the name)
which was a soda fountain that served up ice cream sundaes, cherry Cokes, and some
concoction known as a “Green River.” Back on Main Street, Frank Jewelers and
Ellis Jewelers competed against each other while standing on either side of
Grant’s, a two story department store. Kresge’s, a forerunner to Kmart, rounded
out the 200 block of East Main. Around the corner was Gale Ward’s Sporting
Goods (which held a basement full of toys that my parents conveniently forgot
to tell me about). Across Prairie Street from them was the Spiegel store where
you could pick up stuff you’d ordered from their catalogue.
Lindstroms, about the
only store left from the late 60s, was in a different location. They had recently
moved to a larger building across the street and a little east of Grants. They
were my personal favorite because they carried records which was my favorite
gift. I’m sure that the Beatles’ White
Album that I opened on Christmas morning in 1968 came from their store..
The 100 block of East
Main featured some heavy hitters. The Continental and OT Johnson’s were the
main attractions while Walgreens and Wilkinson’s Office Supply anchored the
south side of the street.
Just before the
square, Farmers and Mechanics’ Bank occupied the northwest corner of Main and
Cherry with a drug store and maybe a photography studio taking up space before
getting to Galesburg’s most popular spot for kids my age, Kiddie Korner (we
were told that Superman’s mom lived upstairs, but that’s a whole other story).
While I don’t
remember the south side of Main Street all that well, I do remember South
Cherry Street. Flesher’s House of Music was across from Marty’s Restaurant, and
the Pizza House stood on the north west corner of Cherry and Simmons,
kitty-corner from its present day location.
There were a lot of
other stores in Downtown as well. It seemed that we had more shoe stores that
we knew what to do with. Taverns were abundant as well, but to someone my age,
all they offered was some pretty neon lights to go with all the Christmas
decorations.
My family did most of
their shopping at Grant, Kresge’s, and Sears with an occasional trip down to OT
Johnsons. Some merchants sent out a giant catalog right before Christmas and I
would spend my spare time dog-earing pages with my toys of choice, circling the
really good ones with a magic marker. My parents would then head for Sears or
some other local merchant that was willing to extend credit to them (credit
cards really didn’t exist then, at least not for my family) and pick up some of
the selected items.
Frank’s Jewelers was
one of the stores that would let my mom and dad pay “on time.” Warren Utsinger
was the manager of the store which was located just east of Grants. He was a
huge man with a deep voice and always had a cigarette burning, either dangling
from the corner or his mouth or smoldering away behind the counter. One year,
he sold us a very expensive AM-FM radio that had shortwave on it as well. It
would be able to pick up the new FM stations like WGIL-FM which had just begun
broadcasting without static.
When the time finally
came to head for Downtown, there was only one real stop I wanted to make and
that was the street in front of Grants. That’s where there was a little shack,
barely bigger than a large bathroom, constructed especially for the season, and
a home for Santa Claus himself.
Santa sat in an
oversized chair, listening to the wishes of all the little kiddies, handing out
candy canes and/or coloring books after hearing the extensive lists. I don’t
remember any other kids in there when I would go in; I’m not sure if that’s
because my parents chose a slow time or if because the line was made to wait
outside the shack. The intimate time with the fat old guy did more to scare the
beejeebers out of me than it did to elicit any kind of coherent list prepared
from the aforementioned catalogs. Although I don’t remember there being a photo
concession set up to generate some dough to pay the guy in the suit, I do have
an old black and white photo of me sticking my finger in my eye while standing
beside of Santa, taken when I was less than ten years old. I think the finger
was poking back the tears of fear that were no doubt trying to weasel their way
out and down my cheeks.
This was truly Santa,
the real one, not some phony guy with a fake beard and a pillow stuffed under
his coat. He was the ONLY Santa allowed in Galesburg so that kids wouldn’t get
confused. Even when Arlan’s, a department store just off the corner of Henderson
and Fremont (where the EconoFoods was most recently located), announced that
Santa would be in their store, we all knew he was the fake one. This phony sat
on a steel folding chair and didn’t bother to give out anything to kids. I
think he lasted a whole year before Arlan’s conceded that the real Santa was
located Downtown.
After the trip to see
Santa, we’d head for the Fannie Mae candy shop (for the life of me, I can’t
remember where it was) where I’d get some Peppermint Ice and some Hostess Mints.
Before heading back to Knoxville, we’d either pick up pizza from the Pizza
House, or head over to the Friendly Café (located across from the Driver’s
License place on Losey) or to the Parkway Drive In (northwest corner of
Henderson and Fremont).
After our dinner,
there was but one stop left to make and that was a trip to a farm located
between Galesburg and Wataga. Each year Vincent Holmes would add a new
decoration to his massive display of Christmas lights that stretched a good
quarter mile. The right side of the farm house was dedicated to Mary and
Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem and the Nativity while the left side was reserved
for the more modern Christmas story with Santa’s workshop (two mechanical elves
hammered away at toys) while an organist rocked from side to side at a pipe
organ.
This year, my wife
did most of her shopping online, without ever leaving the comfort of our couch.
She said it was the simplest shopping she’d ever done. Mine was done in stores
filled with grumpy clerks and seasonal employees who didn’t have a clue where
anything was located. The parking lots were filled with idiot drivers whose
Christmas Sprit was next to non-existent as they exchanged Italian hand signals
while shouting unthinkable (and probably impossible) sexual suggestions at one
another.
Thinking back,
Christmas was a lot more fun back in the 60’s. I’m sure the competition for the
almighty dollar was just as still as it is today, but as a child, I had no
inkling of that. We didn’t have much in the way of electronic gadgetry but we
did have a wonderment and excitement that no computer or superstore could ever
hope to recreate. It’s a time that I’m sorry my children and grandchildren will
never really get to experience.
It was a simple time.
And it was simply magic.
12/18/08