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Author Topic: Mitchell Street in the 60's  (Read 27512 times)
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timmyj3
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« on: September 23, 2010, 07:02:56 AM »


 Hi all,

 Any memories of Mitchell Street when it was a thriving shopping hub? My dad ran the Woolworth's on 10th & Mitchell from the mid 5's thru the late 80's. A kid in the late 60's I would spend every Friday night and Saturday on that street. Going from Gimbels to Goldmans to Sears with mom while my dad was working. I remember a cool popcorn store about 2 blocks west of Woolworth's. I can still smell it sometimes. When I very little in the early 60's I think Walgreen's still had a soda fountain. I remember hating The Grand as my mom loved to go there and as a 6 year old I had to sit and wait! Fun and safe times for a kid in the 60's.
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Administrator
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« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2010, 07:30:00 PM »

I recall Hills department store because my Mother worked there in the late 50's. I also remember the Dixie restaurant. I remember the Woolworth's and the stairway on the West end going to the lower level, it was neat very art-deco looking.  The lunch counter area with booths was very well preserved and remained intact after it was a Woolworth's but it was unused.

As a child I also disliked trips to 'The Grand' (It was boring). My Mother and Sister would bribe me with new comic books so I wouldn't make a fuss. I just sat in a chair and read my new books, Lol!

Sears was always interesting back in those days. They had the guy on the PA system guiding cars to empty parking spaces. Then inside you would be greeted with the smell of the candy counter area and the ever present vacuum cleaner and hovering beach ball display.

I made a point of a self guided tour of the old Schusters a few years back. While the building is largely intact it was like a 'tragical misery tour', when you remember what it once was like.
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pinkpercolator
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« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2011, 11:04:59 AM »

I remember Schuesters on Mitchell St.  Grandma used to take us shopping there.
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Roadsnakes
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« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2012, 12:52:50 PM »

The Sears store was great! They had the guy outside up in booth telling you where to find a parking space as soon as you pulled into the parking lot! AND, it wasn`t even that big of a parking lot! My first new bike was bought at that Sears store around 1965. A Sears 10 speed. What a great bike! I rode to almost every park in the city on that bike, and down to the lake too!
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timmyj3
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« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2012, 11:37:46 AM »

 I too remember the Sears on Mitchell. You could always smell the popcorn when you walked in. I could see the tall part of the Sears building from my classroom at St. Gerards on 16th and Oklahoma.
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Rudy228
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« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2012, 12:53:27 PM »

I attended South Division 1953 to June 56 so 10th and Mitchell and that general area was where I'd be on lunch hour. Back in the 50's, students weren't supposed to be wandering around during school hours but some of us managed to do so.  The Modjeska Theater was open every week day afternoon and on occasion, I would be there, in the balcony watching a movie, instead of in class.

A few years later, after I was married and living on S. Clement and Oklahoma, my wife and I still shopped at Gimbels and Sears and in fact, our wedding bands came from Stone's Jewelers which was close to Mitchell and Forest Home.
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timmyj3
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« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2012, 07:51:28 PM »


 I lived on 15th and Manitoba growing up. As a young adult in the 80's I rented a house on Idaho and Nevada which is extremely close to Oklahoma nd Clement.

 My dad worked at the Woolworths on 10th and Mitchell from 1956 thru 1990. The lived on 15th and Manitoba until 1996.

 It was a wonderful neighborhood in teh 60's and 70's.
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beatle
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« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2012, 02:41:53 PM »

i hung around 6th and mitchell by the grebe's bakery on the corner ...damm good bakery ..then up the street by windlake they had i think it was called the national bakery ..4 cents a donut...my god they were good too
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Roadsnakes
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« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2012, 01:02:36 PM »

In it`s "prime" Mitchell Street had it all. Big name stores to small specialty stores. At Christamas it all decorated, and I even think Christmas music was piped in . Grin I know when Lincoln Ave. was a bustling retail area. Even Lincoln Ave. was decorated at Christmas, and some stores had Christmas music played through speakers outside. Smiley
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Thomas
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« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2015, 08:19:08 AM »

The Sears store- what memories.  Not only the smell of the popcorn, but the roasting of the Spanish peanuts!!!  I remember a few celebrity signings back in the '60's.  Warren Spahn, Don Chandler, and Fuzzy Thurston were three I remember standing in line for.

If you had "husky" kids in your family, they got their clothes at Goldman's.
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Roadsnakes
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« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2016, 01:21:27 PM »

I remember Mitchell Street had a J C Penny`s.

It was two stories, with the floors made of hardwood.

When you walked around the floor "had some give to it".

It would spring up and down a little.
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