A Year-End Bundle of Nostalgia

    It is another rainy day and you have likely had enough of the holiday season, so I will attempt to offer something for you to do. Although shopping is involved, it is not the kind of shopping you just did in an awful, crowded mall. There used to be better places in which to shop and you can visit a few below.
   One of them is in La Ronge, Saskatchewan, but it will not be there next year. The story about its impending closure was told twice by the CBC and you can read and watch or listen to those stories here. Robertson's Trading Post is worth visiting one last time. (Content Warning: Although I don't usually provide one, I will note that anti-fur, animal lovers might be traumatized by some of the photographs provided. Others may be 'harmed' by learning that for some people, a typical work week was 12 hours per day, 7 days a week. )
   Almost by accident, Mulcahy's Miscellany contains other stories about the general stores of our past. Anyone interested in such ancient emporiums who stumbles upon this post, will find information about the old relics that once were -- village stores, department stores, ranging from Robertson's in La Ronge to Kingsmill's in London.

Meet the Robertsons
   On Dec. 3, 2023, the CBC offered this story: “The Trading Post: An Iconic Northern Store is Shutting Down After 56 Years,” by Kenneth Latimer. Apart from the excellent photographs, you will also see a video of the Robertsons (7 min.) Here is a bit from the piece: 
   Alex and Phyllis Robertson moved to a small community in northern Saskatchewan with little more than dust in their pockets, big dreams and dedication.
   They started up a tiny general store and fur trading post, not knowing that Robertson Trading would still be running strong 56 years later in La Ronge, Sask., or that it would come to be regarded as a gem of the north. 
   Their son Scott Robertson has worked at the store since he was a child and has been managing the iconic shop for decades. He’s tormented by his decision to shut the store down.
   The store, known locally as the Trading Post, is technically a general store, but it’s also an Indigenous art gallery, a genuine Canadian antiques show, a bucket-list destination for tourists, and an outfitter for camps and people heading into the bush.
   The unofficial museum operates on the town’s main street across from Lac La Ronge, which is on the edge of the Canadian Shield.

   On December 6, the CBC presented this story which contains an audio account (50 min.) of "Blue Sky" with Leisha Grebinksi: "People Reflect on Legacy of Robertson Trading As Store Winds Down After 56 Years: It's the End of an Era for Iconic Trading Post in Northern Saskatchewan."   Additional information about La Ronge and Robertsons is found on the website of Tourism Saskatchewan. 

General Stores in General
   In the post mysteriously hidden under the title "Dorfläden,” you will learn that the Germans are favouring village stores over "Big-box" ones. As well, it contains descriptions of some that are left in Ontario and books about them. In the usual "Post Script" it is noted that those in London years ago, used to sell booze and soon "convenience" stores here may be able to do so again. 

    During the pandemic I did a post called "Detour" which showed how one could go out and about by using Google maps and Google Street View. As an illustration I chose Kingsmill's, a "Department" store, and indicated that the Google people had even gone inside it. Unfortunately, I could no longer find the interior image by using Google maps and the Kingsmill's link no longer exits. But, if you do google "Kingsmill's" on Google maps, links are offered to two articles about that store. The picture above is from one of them: "The End of a Department Store, and a Way of Life: Kingsmill's - as Art Deco Heritage Building and One of Canada's Few Remaining Family Owned Department Stores, Is Closing," Francine Kopun, Toronto Star, July 2, 2014.

   More recently I discussed the leaving of Nordstrom from Canada and the return of Zellers in, "Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be." I also mentioned Shnurr's which has been in Linwood, Ontario for 165 years. Fortunately I also provided the image of the interior of Kingsmill's which I captured earlier from Google Maps. 

What About the Windows?
   The larger department stores often featured elaborate Christmas displays and older Londoners will remember the ones at Simpson's. Recently, the Canadian correspondent for the New York Times offered some suggestions about where to see them - not new real ones, but old displays: "In Search of Vintage Window Displays: The Mechanically Powered Holiday Scenes That Once Filled Department-store Windows in Canada Are Still Humming. Here's Where to Find Them," Ian Austen, Dec. 16, 2023. Here are some examples.
 Some of these are done for Christmas and will disappear next month, but keep the sites in mind for your grandkids for next year. 
I hope you have a good one.

"Eaton's Once Upon a Christmas Exhibit" by the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon. 
Since 1987, the Eaton’s Once Upon A Christmas exhibit has delighted visitors, young and old. The exhibit continues to be a major attraction for those who visit the WDM during the holiday season. It offers an opportunity for parents to share with their children memories of their childhood and it allows children to enter a world of make-believe and magic.
We encourage you to visit the WDM Saskatoon from November 2, 2023 through January 7, 2024 with your family and enjoy this wonderful Saskatchewan tradition.

The Manitoba Children's Museum - Eaton's Fairy Tale Vignettes
The Children’s Museum is pleased to be the home of the last original Eaton’s Fairytale Vignettes Display from the ninth floor annex of the Eaton’s downtown store – fully restored and open to the public for a limited time only.

OGILVY'S CHRISTMAS MECHANICAL WINDOW DISPLAYS, McCord Stewart Museum - Montreal.
Montrealers have been spellbound by the mechanical displays in Ogilvy’s department store window for over 70 years — a Holiday tradition that began in 1947. The Bavarian scenes, custom made by the German toy manufacturer Steiff, feature dozens of handcrafted animals working and playing.In 1911, the firm began producing mechanical windows featuring moving animals, which stores could rent or purchase – an effective way of entertaining children while promoting their merchandise. James Aird Nesbitt, who owned Ogilvy’s department store from 1927 to 1985, bought two – The Enchanted Village and The Mill in the Forest.Similar to those of department stores in other parts of the world, such as Macy’s in New York or Galeries Lafayette in Paris, these window displays are among the last of their kind in North America. They were donated to the McCord Stewart Museum in March 2018 by Holt Renfrew with the goal of preserving and ensuring the continuation of the iconic Montreal displays.

Hudson's Holidays - Detroit Historical Society.
   Founded as a humble clothier for men and boys in 1881, J.L. Hudson Company reportedly racked up an average of 100,000 sales per day by the 1950s, and its 25-story building was the world’s tallest department store until 1961. Visitors will learn what made Hudson’s so popular, like its huge selection of merchandise and full-service approach, which went beyond with in-store restaurants, salons and alterations departments to offer amenities like a circulating library, a writing lounge and an in-house dry cleaner.
   The exhibition features a selection of must-see items from the Detroit Historical Society collection, including the toys and decor that made the holidays at Hudson’s so magical, the fashions and accessories that made the store a year-round shopping destination, and some artifacts from the downtown store that evoke the massive building’s distinctive features. Revisit traditions enjoyed by generations of Detroiters, like seeing the World’s Largest Flag, visiting Santa in Toy Town and shopping for deals in the Basement Store>
Also see this from the Encyclopedia of Detroit.

Post Script:
   We now have "dollar stores" among the tattoo parlours and payday loan shops and about them, I don't think we will ever feel nostalgic. Here is a paragraph about Dollar General from a book review I did of, The National Road: Dispatches From a Changing America by Tom Zoellner:
   The next essay is the titular one, but it is more about the "little-box" chain, Dollar General, than it is about the 'National Road'.  There are now more of them than there are McDonalds and that is not a good thing. For the reasons why, read this essay and these more recent ones: "The True Cost of Dollar Stores: Discount Chains Are Thriving. But, What Do They Do To Poor Communities," by Alec MacGillis, The New Yorker, June 29, 2020, or "How Dollar Stores Became Magnets for Crime and Killing," Alec MacGillis, ProPublica, June 29, 2020. 

The National Road

 

Travelling Tom

      The title of this post may look familiar to MM readers because in an earlier one I mentioned The National Road, by Philip D. Jordan (see American Trails Book Series.) That one was about the actual 'National Road' that headed west out of Cumberland, Md. This new book by Tom Zoellner is about more than that. 

   I picked it up probably because of my interest in roads and trails and also because, right now, we can't easily strike out on them. At least we can read about travelling, however, and if you are interested in doing so, I encourage you to have a look at Mr. Zoellner's book.

   This will be a quick review since my copy from the London Public Library has been recalled and I have to return it this morning. You can recall it from the person who recalled it from me, buy a hard copy, or wait for the paperback which is already available in the United States. Here is the author's website and Penguin's.  I will go quickly through the fourteen essays which can be read independently of one another. You will enjoy them all if you appreciate good prose and a bit of pondering.

  The first dispatch is "Your Land", across which Americans often wander, and the tone of the whole tome is set in these two short sentences. "Resentment builds." "National cohesiveness frays."

   If you recognize the first part of the first sentence of the next essay - "And it came to pass...," you will know that it is about Mormons, which it is: "Morman Historical Sites At Night." The author doesn't know why he visits such places and often does so on impulse, but that doesn't really matter because Mormon sites would be interesting even during the day. The first one he visits is near where the golden book was buried and another is where Joseph Smith was killed by a mob.

   "Drive" reveals a lot about Mr. Zoellner's driving and why he motors about: "There is little I love more than the spell of a motorized land journey, a languorous day, a vague forward-looking destination in mind and a full tank of gas." His first drive happened when he was a freshman and his longest one "went through twenty-nine major cities, totaling eleven thousand miles in a conversion van, tracing a grand arc around the country: starting in Tucson, through the Mojave to Las Vegas, then to L.A. and up the West Coast to Seattle, across to Montana and down to Salt Lake City, over the Rockies and through the Midwest... to Chicago, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, then back to Tucson again." He has taken other such trips, often sleeps outside and doesn't particularly care what kind of vehicle he is driving.

   "Spillville is the next destination and the opening sentence may be enough to get you to buy the hardback: "In the summer of 1893, the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak took his wife and six children to the frontier town of Spillville, Iowa, for a three month stay. This was not a random choice." I will just say that things were better then in Spillville.

   The next essay is the titular one, but it is more about the "little-box" chain, Dollar General, than it is about the 'National Road'.  There are now more of them than there are McDonalds and that is not a good thing. For the reasons why, read this essay and these more recent ones: "The True Cost of Dollar Stores: Discount Chains Are Thriving. But, What Do They Do To Poor Communities," by Alec MacGillis, The New Yorker, June 29, 2020, or "How Dollar Stores Became Magnets for Crime and Killing," Alec MacGillis, ProPublica, June 29, 2020. 

   "The Whole Hoop of the World" is about the Highpointer Club which consists of those who want to climb the highest peak in all of the states. It's not as hard as it sounds. The Ebright Azimuth in Delaware is only 448 feet and one can almost drive to the top of some higher ones. The value of such an exercise for Mr. Zoellner, is explained here: To engage in this odd pursuit is to drive obscure rural roads far away from interstates, eat in small town diners, sleep in rarely visited forests and motels, and see quotidian parts of the nation where only locals and a flock of eccentric alpinists regularly venture." 

   I just did a post about "News Deserts" and the loss of local newspapers and to it, "Late City Final" should be added. The author was a local reporter for many different newspapers and he notes with irony: "For a trade dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the discovery of uncomfortable facts, the newspaper business missed one hell of a story flying right in its face."

   "The Villages" is about the author's time in New York City and "The Valley" is about "the other Hollywood", which consists of mansions where porn films are shot. "Welcome to Dirtytown" is about "venomous little towns" and corrupt municipalities, where the public purses are filled by fines collected from the motorists passing through. Within the space of a few blocks or miles one can move from one principality to another and be stopped repeatedly by the members of a completely different constabulary.

   "Searchlight" is a town in Nevada and you will enjoy this essay immensely unless you are a member of the Nevada Chamber of Commerce. Zoellner knows the state well and takes you through mining towns, as well as cat houses and casinos. As well, he provides us with this very useful strategy if you are going to play blackjack: stand even on garbage when the dealer shows a two through a six; don't split anything but aces and eights; hit on anything lower than a seven if the dealer has paint; double down on an ace even if it involves reaching into reserves; walk away after doubling or losing a previously determined kitty."

  "King Philip's Shadow" is about King Philip's War and the consequences. "Home Ground" is about Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles and in it you will find buried, this sentence: "The pandemic only exacerbated an American solitude that was already there, already growing stronger, not just in an era when social media and computerized entertainment were pulling the national garment thinner but as trust in old principles and institutions was faltering under fevered hallucinations creeping even deeper into the country's amygdala. Civil servants had become the deep state, once valued immigrants had been cast as an invasion, straight-laced information sources were fake news, experts were frauds, doctors were greedy liars, the killing of the virus itself was some kind of hoax." 

    Perhaps as sad as those sentences is the title of the last essay, "At The End There Will Be Strangers," which is about the purchase and destruction of his grandmother's house in Paradise Valley, Arizona. And, to end with some Canadian content, I will note that the strangers who bought the house are wealthy Canadians.  I have to get to the library and return this book, which I really enjoyed.