bruceparksnow-bw

When I was about 12 years old, the New York State Thruway was built and with it the Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers. It was one of the first shopping centers in the United States.

The Cross County had stores like John Wanamaker, Gimbels, Franklin Simon, Horn and Hardart, Wilskers, Lerners and luggage and shoe stores. And it had a five and cents store or Woolworths where you could buy or eat anything.

In my wippersnapper days I had holiday jobs at three of these stores - Franklin Simon (my first job as a sales girl at 16 years, one month old); Horn and Hardart's (waitress at 17 in the summer); and Woolworth’s (at 16 and a half where I was made manager of the pizza, snow cone and soft ice cream counter).

We calculated change then in our heads without machines.

Imagine one level beautifully landscaped with little benches to sit on and share a cup of coco. There were fairies and elves that came alive in store windows, each elegantly signed and decorated with clothing or goods that you cannot find now - all made in the USA of cotton, wool or leather.

People hustled and bustled with smiles on their faces and kids scurried like puppies across the walkways to see Santa. We were all well dressed then (not expensively, but tastefully). No sloppy clothes, no foul language, no STUBBLES.

Imagine being alone with your thoughts and musing over what to buy for daddy or having lunch with mom after shopping and walking arm and arm in the snow.

The go to place then was Wilskers Delicatessen, unequalled even in Manhattan with its corned beef sandwiches (piled on top of sour dough rye with crunchy crusts) so lean that it melted in your mouth; and the pickles were right out of the barrel. All with a root beer for $2.99.

All stores closed at 1 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Dad picked me up in his station wagon at that time from my first job in a snow storm. I remember it like it was yesterday.

How lucky were we who lived through that time.