HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

Downtown

         

Years ago there was only one place to go if you wanted to buy anything – downtown. It was truly a marvelous place that displayed all the latest wares. The only way people had to see what was available besides the newspaper was to go downtown and see it for themselves.

         

This was before the days of television and the internet. The only alternative the populace had was the Sears & Roebuck catalogue. This was commonly called the “wish book”, especially around Christmas.

         

But there was nothing like going downtown where the actual merchandise was on display. The big shopping night was Saturday night. Since almost everybody in town knew everybody else, getting dressed up was the order of the day. It was as much a social occasion as a shopping trip. There was the Ulman Theater, the New Theater and the Wicomico Theater. Some shoppers strolled Main St. before going to the movies.

         

We had three 5 & 10’s - Woolworths, J.J. McCrory and Newbury’s.

It seemed like every department in every store had a different sales person behind the counter and they knew the merchandise well. Most of the stores had wooden floors and had no air conditioning for the hot summer nights.

         

Main St. was open to traffic, but you had to get there early to get a parking place. There were no “municipal lots” in those days.

         

R. E. Powell & Co. had the only elevator that was used by the general public. There was even an elevator operator. I remember the dual system of closing doors that the operator would open and close with great fanfare.

         

There were no charge cards, but a few stores had what were known as store accounts. The Montgomery Wards store on Main St. had some kind of device that sent messages or anything else up to the office by way of cables that ran overhead. This was a great source of amazement to us younger kids.

         

There were certain things on Main St. that you will never see again. Things like the “Big Shoe” in front of Homer White’s shoe store. Before that there was the roasted peanut contraption ran by Tom Cinno. He had a confectionary on the West end of Main St. and hooked up the peanut roaster to a gas pipe that extended out from the front of his building. Since he was directly opposite the Ulman Theater, many a patron got their fresh-roasted peanuts before going to the movies. If it was cold, some of his customers purchase two bags – one for each coat pocket to keep their hands warm.

         

Those gentle evenings of shopping and strolling are now only a memory. The slow pace of a Saturday night spent on Main St. has given way to the fast pace of life in the 21^st Century.