I miss those days going downtown back in the 50's and seeing the window displays for Christmas at The May Company, Higbees and also the giant Christmas tree at Sterling Lindner Davis and even Mr Jing-A-Ling across the street at Halles. Those are memories to be treasured.
I didn’t see downtown Cleveland in the fifties but I did in the sixties. Public square would be all decorated with lights and the windows in the department stores were magical. I still remember the words to the Mr. Jingaling song. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
I remember going to the Silver Grille,and Mayfair Room at Higbees and May's . Seems like once out of state stores bought them out it all went down hill. I did have the opportunity to revist the old Silver Grille room when we visited Cleveland on our honeymoon.. ( Yes I live in Honolulu so I back to basics -or where I was born).
My dad worked the afternoon shift, so at Christmas time, on his way to work, he would drop off my mom, my brother, my sister, and me downtown so we could do our shopping. We just had to see Mr.Jingaling and eat hamburgers at the Silver Grille after shopping (remember the Twigbee Shop where little kids could do their shopping?) and admiring the window displays. Then came the ride home on a CTS (now RTA) bus. Those memories are some of my happiest.
I really hate saying anything that starts with “Kids today...” but the holiday magic shown in these images no longer exists and can’t be duplicated with any technology
Great days, too bad they will never come back. If stores had great windows like this now the Far-left would say "stop this the kids are having too much fun" I also remember Stetson shoes on 12th & Euclid, Jerry Mills on 9th and Prospect and all the strange stores on Prospect ( Dan the Hatter etc)
@Reubenhubert Those buses were so expensive! I remember having to pay 55 cents in the early 70s but my wage was only 90 cents per hour. I found the Twigbee Shop really depressing as a little girl.
I just moved here. The east side of Cleveland is a rat infested trashy ghetto crime dump but downtown cleveland is beautiful and the western suburbs and eastern suburbs are beautiful. Also there is a lot of natural beauty here with the Emerald Necklace (look it up). If you just stay out of the dumpy areas it's great here! This is not unlike any major city, right? There's always the bad side and good side.
