Country Roads

Remember when window shopping was enjoyed? In my youth, most stores had large tall windows on both sides of the entrance. The large windows had platforms behind them so the store could display their products eye level to people passing by. The object of the window displays was to draw the people’s attention and hopefully have them stop to look things over. Thus potential customers were drawn to look and admire the store’s latest offerings, which would hopefully draw them inside the store to make a purchase. At night, lights were turned on so window shopping would continue when the stores were closed. Window shopping was a popular thing to do.

In my Jewell County hometown, the Canfield’s Shoe Store had the latest in the shoe offerings displayed in their windows as did the shoe stores in Superior and Mankato. In the summer, the shoes displayed would be sandals and tennis shoes for women. For the men, displays would be work boots and dress shoes. Dreiling’s Department Store in Mankato had all the latest seasonal fashions on mannequins in the large front windows, as did the Style Shoppe in Superior. Today, Carmen’s in Superior continues displaying the latest fashions in those same large windows on either side of the entryway.

Another store that used to be in my hometown of Burr Oak was an unusual combination of businesses called Morris’ Garage. In the back of the store building, the Morris family ran a mechanic shop but in the front was another family member’s television shop. This was when televisions were the latest thing for the family home. At that time, there were large windows in the front of the store where the new televisions were on display. Keith Morris not only sold the televisions but he would maintain and repair televisions and radios.

When my family lived in Stockton, Kansas, I remember walking down the main street and window shopping. Main street was lined with all kinds of stores. The one I’d window shop at the most was the drug store. Every season this drug store’s windows were filled with appropriate landscaping with their gift items on display. For me, the toys, dolls and train sets displayed in the front windows for the Christmas season were my favorite. They drew my attention. I stopped with my eyes glued to the windows.

The highlight of my window shopping years came during my high school class’s Senior Sneak to Kansas City. One of our stops was at the Macy’s Department Store. I’ll never forget window shopping there. Before I entered the store, I saw all the carefully planned displays in the windows that circled the exterior of the store. We all marveled at the way things were displayed in those windows. In more recent years, the place where I was employed sent me to Dallas, Texas, for a seminar. At the downtown hotel where I stayed, there was a store on the main level called Neiman Marcus. It had display windows in the front filled with the lovely latest fashions drawing my attention to window shop.

Today, most of the local stores have done away with the large display windows, making the store more energy efficient and doing away with all the elaborately planned window displays. Window shopping has become a thing of the past at most of the stores. Country Roads