I just ran across a picture of main street, Honesdale, Pa circa 1965. It was obviously around Christmastime. The tipoff was the plastic Christmas trees hanging from the lamp posts. Also the fact that the streets were snow covered, something that hasn't been seen much this year. Winters used to be cold with many days zero or below and snowfall averaging around 45 inches a year. That is something I don't miss. The south goes into a panic whenever we have 4 inches every couple of years.
One thing that stood out was what wasn't there anymore. So many of the businesses that had been around for decades are no longer there. Katz's was the Macy's of Honesdale, the big department store. I still remember when they had a conveyor system to transport cash to some office hidden from view. The store smelled stale and musty but that was the place to go to buy clothing that wasn't in style and transactions handled by little old blue haired ladies. They also had a successful factory making underwear but as imports rose from the Far East, domestic manufacturing of textiles fell until the manufacturing sector throughout all of Northeast Pennsylvania was no more.
I worked one summer before entering my senior year in high school at Murray and Company. It was the place you would buy everything from appliances to farm equipment. It had been successful since I can remember, until it too fell victim of it's own success and residents realized they could venture a few miles out of town and find the same items cheaper. The building still has, to the best of my knowledge, painted lettering on the rear as was done on most large brick buildings of the day.
Others are gone as far as I knew. Sullum's Clothing Store was the place to go for work clothes. They expanded to include some "contemporary" fashion..Their merchandising left much to be desired as clothing was hung where ever it would fit. I bought a couple of leisure suits there just before I moved to Europe and also ran into the sister of an old girlfriend who was working there before heading to Penn State. She had been like a sister to me, and it was very hard to turn and walk away. So many unasked questions.
Missing from the picture were other landmarks: Newberry's, W. T. Grant, and down the road apiece, the old Chroma Tube plant where I also worked for awhile. It was one of only two decent paying manufacturing employers. I was making $1.90 an hour, a grand paycheck for the area in 1968. Thankfully I got appendicitis which made me change career fields..Couldn't lift picture tubes with a gash in your side, no matter how good a job they did of stitching me up.
Also missing were the Chevy and Chrysler dealerships, both falling victim of poor auto sales. Owl Chrysler Plymouth dated back to when cars were called horseless carriages. The showroom was barely big enough for one car, the rest were stored upstairs and brought down by elevator. The used car portion was maybe 5 cars wide and 6 deep. The Chevy dealership had also been there forever and it wasn't exactly the best place to showcase the new Impala. Owl moved to the outskirts of town and built a great new facility only to fold.
Missing too were the two drive-ins. We'd take our best girl to either the Maple or the other one who's name escapes me. The Maple was the best and was usually packed on a Saturday night. On July 4th and Labor day, they would have an all nighter. The other was a buck a car load and you'd be amazed how many kids you could fit in the trunk. It was situated in a field, and after it closed, mother nature reclaimed the land. I don't remember ever watching a movie from beginning to end.
It's very sad to see the little things I held on to as a youth gone forever. Not that I want to buy musty Katz underwear or another leisure suit. It's just that those businesses were symbols of a time when life was simple. We did have our war, a horrific one called Viet-Nam. But until dozens from the area, myself included, raised their hand, promising to protect and defend the Constitution, we brought it a little closer to home and made it more relevant. We were swearing to protect and defend our own little corner of the world, in our case, Main Street, Honesdale, Pa.
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