Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be

 Nordstrom and Zellers

   This post is not about either of those commercial establishments since you will already have read a lot about them over the last few weeks. If you haven't, I will say simply that the purveyor of luxury goods (Nordstrom) left Canada, while the discount chain (Zellers) returned. Zellers, by the way, closed hundreds of stores about a decade ago, and was bought by Target which more recently closed shop and left to go back to the more robust southern market. Sears had already gone and Lowes and Bed Bath & Beyond are also exiting. What this all means I will leave for the more mercantile-minded to explain to you, but to put it in balance sheet terms, I think it likely constitutes a 'loss.'  I could be wrong. Apparently nostalgia-seeking Canadians are lining up for Zellers-branded red sweatshirts and Dollar General stores and pay-day lenders are multiplying quickly enough to more than fill the commercial real estate spaces left empty by Nordstrom. 

But What About Schnurr's?

   My real intention, which is not clear from that digressive first paragraph, is to bring to your attention a story you did not read. It is about a General Store that is located in Linwood, Ontario. It has been there for 165 years and if you are a fan of true nostalgia, you can go shop there or, in September, take a tour during "Door's Open Waterloo Region." 

  More importantly, if you read the article I will provide about Schnurr's, along with my earlier post about “Dorfläden,” you will learn a great deal about the history of 'General Stores', which is more interesting, I think, than knowing about the current retail environment. 

Sources:

   "This Family-Owned Grocery Store Has Been Serving the Linwood Community for 165 Years," Carmen Groleau, CBC News, Mar. 23, 2023.

   “Dorfläden, is the German term for "village stores", which appear to be coming back. The post about it is Here and if you are interested in old-timey things like "Service Stations", see Here. 

The Bonus:

   The picture of Schnurr's is from Google Street View. If you are longing for the good old department store days, here is a scene from inside of Kingsmill's which used to exist in London. It is also from Google and more about that is found in this post: "Detour."

Eric Sloane (1905 - 1985)

Simpler Times 

   If you are interested in old-timey things and are looking for a diversion, then check out the works of Eric Sloane. By 'works' I mean both paintings and books. You will value him as an author if titles like these are appealing: A Reverence for Wood; A Museum of Early American Tools; American Barns and Covered Bridges and Our Vanishing Landscape. You will appreciate him as an artist if you find attractive such things as paintings of clouds and large vistas and illustrations of things on the land that have now mostly disappeared. 

   He started out in the East as a sign painter and while working on one for the Half-Moon Hotel on Coney Island, he met some pilots and began putting letters and logos on planes. That led to an interest in illustrating the sky and if you have ever visited the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, you could not have missed his mural there which is "seven stories high and half a block long." He painted signs all across the country and wrote books with illustrations about the things he saw. He ended up in Taos.
   His interest in the sky led him to study meteorology and write about it. If you are curious about the weather and climate change see: Folklore of American Weather and For Spacious Skies: A Meteorological Sketchbook of American Weather.  In this regard, he is like George R. Stewart, who I wrote about one year ago. The two of them will provide you with enough material to last you through all the bad weather that is soon to come. 

       

Sources:

   If you just want to see if he is someone you might be interested in, simply go to the entry for Eric Sloane in Wikipedia.

   If you are still only marginally interested, see the website created by a Sloane fan back in 2014. It still exists and contains a brief biography and a bibliography. Ericsloane.com still works in late 2021, so the link has been embedded for you. 

  If you are now really interested, visit the state of Connecticut where you will find the Eric Sloane Museum & Kent Iron Furnace. , in Kent. That state also promotes him on their website. Finally, if you are convinced that he is an interesting character, visit the: Friends of the Eric Sloane Museum: Preserving the Legacy of Eric Sloane and the Museum He Founded. 

For obituaries see:

Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1985.

New York Times, March 8, 1985.

The Bonus:
   According to the Wikpedia entry, he was married seven times (it may have been only five.) He died of a heart attack in New York city on the way to an event in his honour. Apart from his house and the museum in Connecticut, I found this real estate listing from a few years ago for the house he built in Santa Fe. 
   Western University close by has several of his works and the London Public Library a few. That is where I got a copy of Diary of an Early American Boy. Unfortunately it appears to have gone missing since it is no longer listed in their catalogue. ( A while back, I wondered if the disappearance of books from the LPL's could be a problem - See The Mystery of the Missing Books.)