AYN ROUND: INSOMNIA

Sometimes when I am having a hard time falling asleep, I try and remember the layout of the downtown of my small hometown, Easton, Pa. I start at one side of the circle, beginning with Woolworth's (I can picture the inside of the store, complete with the lunch counter and smells that went with it.) One Christmas my brother and I pooled our money ($2.13)for a gift for our parents and spent an hour shopping the wonders of Woolworth's. We settled on a small milk glass hobnail lamp which we thought was the most beautiful thing ever. To her credit our mother actually used it next to her bed!

Heading up the street, my mind draws several blanks...there was Seidel's Stride Rite Shoes. They had one of those x-ray machines to check your bones inside your shoes to ensure a perfect fit. Wouldn't want those bones cramped - better to have them nuked! There was nothing quite like a new pair of Mary Janes that had slippery bottoms. Great for sliding on carpeting! When I was a kid you didn't have a closet-floor full of shoes. You had your "dress" shoes,your school shoes and your play shoes...and heaven help you if you didn't change your shoes when you came home from school!

Heading up Northampton Street, you could zig around the corner to Riebman's Childrens Shop - the home of my chubette wardrobe! Or you could hang a left and head to the Mohican Market. Mmmm - the smells. They had homemade cottage cheese, breads and all sorts of wonderful things. At the top of the hill, the State Theatre, complete with balcony. Many nice memories there...especially watching "Spartacus" with my first boyfriend. I remember his taking my hand (be still my beating heart) and asking if I did a lot of dishes. Argh.
Across the street, Kiefers Hardware- where my Dad worked a second job - teaching must not have been enough to keep our family of four going. I loved that hardware store. Tubs of seeds, all sorts of tools, neatly organized bins of nails, screws, bolts etc. To this day I love snooping around hardware stores, the more old-fashioned the better! When I was 7 and my brother 4 Dad brought home from the store identical swim trunks with fish on them...I have pictures of me wearing this feminine number!

Heading back down toward Centre Square (actually a circle) I would pass Sigal's Womens Store. The sales people there must have been on commission since they pounced on you when you pushed the door open. In the next block, Laubach's Department store and next door, Orr's Department store. I worked at Laubach's during high school - my favorite job was wrapping gifts on the balcony. Next door to Orr's - Bixler's Jewelry Store - the oldest in the US,so they said. Open the door...and a quiet, elegance...intimidating for a young me. Getting a gift in a Bixler's box compared to getting one in a Tiffany's box today.
Adjacent to Bixler's - Grollman's, (Tres chichi) with a sales staff also on commission! Heading around the circle, the Pomfret Club - a restaurant that always had an aura of mystery to me - I never went in there and wondered who did! Next door - Jacob Mayer's Mens Store. I loved going in there with my Dad when he was trying to find clothes to fit his 6'6" self. When my Mom got him his yearly new hat there at Christmas it always came in a tiny hatbox with an equally small hat inside!
Now I am getting almost to the starting point in my trip...the Sweet Shoppe...Thatchers Seafood Market...and numerous businesses along the way that I can't remember for the life of me. But... I'm getting sleepy now. Zzzzzzzzzz.