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KRESSIES FIVE AND DIME ... remember when......

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Seajay:

At one time in High Point, NC we had four, five and ten cent stores.  Yep, four and the biggest one was Kress and everyone called it ''Kressies''.  It was one city block deep and stretched from Main street to Hamilton street in the back.  You could buy about anything in there as long as it did not cost more than one dollar.  They had a candy counter to die for and my Mom loved the black jelly beans that were mixed in with all the other colors.  I remember once we went by the candy counter and Mom told the little girl behind the counter that she was pregnant and she was just craving the ''Black Jellybeans'' and could she possibly pick her out a pound of ''Black Jellybeans''.  The attendant stood and picked out a  pound of the precious jelly beans for mom.   From then on, Mom would go thru Kressies and the lady would pick out about a pound of black jelly beans for mom because she was ''pregnant''.   After a few months the lady asked Mom when she was going to ''deliver'' and Mom told her that she was never pregnant and used that as a  ploy to get the black beans.   From then on that lady would deliberately spoon out jelly beans for mom and deliberately avoid the black ones …
One great advantage was that at Kressies they had a lunch counter that went across the back of the store.  All sorts of fast food like Hot Dogs, Burgers, Cheese sandwiches etc...  They had several stools for seating and lots of people just ate standing up because there was not a place to sit down  on Saturday.  There was a bus stop behind Kressies and if you ever needed to see someone you could go to the Lunch Counter in the back of Kressies and stand there for a while and it was a good bet that you would see the person you wanted to see because about everyone would eventually come thru Kressies and stop at the Lunch counter for a Coke and a hot dog while they waited for the bus to come to the bus stop.  From Kressies you could get a transfer to about any bus route in town and that is where we would catch the bus to get back home.  Bus fair was ten cents and transfers were free.  Back then I was fascinated by the ''coin changer'' that the bus driver wore on his belt.  If you had a quarter he would drop it into one slot and, using levers on the devise he would kick you out two dimes and a nickle quick as a wink.  I always wanted to be a Bus Driver just so I could use one of the ''coin changers'' that he wore.
 (I guess you could say I was kind of a stupid kid sometimes. I wanted to be an ''Ice Man so I could use and Ice Pick, I wanted to be a bus driver so I would have a ''coin changer'',  I wanted to be a Milk Man so I could drive a milk truck ''standing up'',  I became a business man and retired at 55.  I think I made the right choice after all.)
  This was before the time of shopping centers and everyone came to ''Town'' on Saturday for shopping and to socialize at the lunch counter at Kressies five and dime.

Such  are the memory’s of a old man who use to be a small boy back in 1947 after the big war......

I personally think we should be very grateful to our WW2 vets for giving us the freedoms we have today..  Ten times ten thousands died to assure that freedom and I am sure some of us don’t even know whom we fought in the Big War...... think about it …..............cj............

captsteve:
Bravo Seajay!

Just Lou:
Seajay, that's a story that awakens a few memories for many of us older folks, but in the interest of accuracy, I suspect that the real name of the store was Kresgē.  Commonly known as Kresge's.  They were the predecessors of K-Mart. 

Molaker:

--- Quote from: Just Lou on June 23, 2012, 09:04:29 AM ---Seajay, that's a story that awakens a few memories for many of us older folks, but in the interest of accuracy, I suspect that the real name of the store was Kresgē.  Commonly known as Kresge's.  They were the predecessors of K-Mart.

--- End quote ---
It was Kresge's in my home town.  Mom used to work behind their food counter for 25 cents an hour back during the "Great Depression" - that was before my time, however.  After I arrived and had grown enough to be turned loose on the square (about 9 years old), I would frequent Kresge's toy counters to wish and dream.  If I was nice about it, I could drive the toy cars around the top edges of the little bins that contained the different toys.  I had to make sure I put them back in the right bin when I finished, though.  Our Kresge's had a front and back door.  The front door(s) opened up on the square.  The back door opened up on the street behind.  Embedded in the sidewalk out back was a freight elevator that went down to the basement.  It had big steel doors that opened up when the elevator came up and closed when it went down.  Funny, I don't recall any warning lights or sirens or clanging bells to warn the foot traffic and I know quite a bit about that elevator.  My grandfather was a trash man.  That is, he hauled the refuge for many of the downtown businesses and Kresge's was one of them.  Sometimes, in the summer, I'd get to go on his route with him.  I loved going up and down the Kresge's freight elevator.  But, most of all I loved helping granddad load the trash from the basement.  Kresge's threw away a lot of good stuff.  Not good enough to sell in the store, but good stuff nonetheless.  Like Easter chocolate bunnies and eggs that had started turning white.  Or toys missing a wheel or something.  In case you are wondering, the good folks at Kresge's always wrapped the "spoiled" chocolate and other edibles and placed it beside the trash bins so it wouldn't be ruined by mixing with the real trash.  Anytime I went with granddad, it was my job to watch closely as he dumped the barrels into his truck for other good stuff.  One big item was silverware.  Mom had a complete set, well sorta, of Kresge's silver and Woolworth's silver.  Granddad hauled trash for Woolworth's, too.  It was just a couple of doors down from Kresge's.  In between was Newberry's.  All three stores were basically "five and dimes", except Woolworth's and Newberry's had more drygoods than Kresge's.  One year, Woolworth's remodeled their store.  They threw away a lot of good stuff.  Right now, you can go out to my workshop and find an operating ceiling fan that came from Woolworth's.  It has plywood blades my father put on it probably 60 years ago because the old skinny original blades got damaged over time.  It takes that old fan quite a while to come up to speed, but it still hums along.  It has cooled a lot of folks over its lifespan.  As a guess, I'd say it was close to 100 years old.  Kresge's (and Woolworth's) trash was another man's (and boy's) treasure.

Gary RV Roamer:
Had both a Kresge's and a Woolworth's  "5 and 10" where I grew up. What nostalgia to see these stories and think back to those times!  I remember the combined shock and amazement when our Kresge's succumbed to modern marketing and became a Jupiter Outlet, K's attempt to remake themselves into the modern era (Woolworth tried the same with its Woolco stores, but our local Woolworth's just closed it doors around 1960). The end of an era but the start of something new and bizarre!

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