When I was a kid there were two stores in our Bronx neighborhood we called the “five-and-dimes”. One was Woolworth which of course is a national chain, and the other was Fishers which I think was just a local store. Yet to my child’s sensibility they were both grand emporiums selling priceless treasures, and I remember shopping there with my grandmother.
She and my grandfather lived about an hour away by car in Far Rockaway and of course we’d often visit back and forth. But after my grandfather died, although she had a license, my grandmother was nervous about driving long distances alone, and so to visit us she came by bus. And I remember waiting for her at the bus stop which was on the same block as Fishers, and when she got off the bus we’d go into the store together and I’d pick out a little glass animal to add to my prized collection.
And although it seems a lifetime ago, I remember how grown up I felt shopping for my glass menagerie in that local five-and-dime.
And I remember how proud I felt shopping there with you, Grandma.
– Dana Susan Lehrman
In my neighborhood in southern Queens, we had a five-and-dime called Kress. It certainly seemed like a grand emporium to my childhood eyes!
Ah Sharon, that sounds familiar, I think my Far Rockaway grandmother shopped in Kress!
I adored little glass or china animals too. They sat on a framed mirror my mom gave me. I thought they were beautiful! Just like your story!
Thanx Paula, glad to hear little girls in Ohio also collected those sweet little animals!
Those little glass animals—so cute and entrancing! Do you still have them? Along with those wonderful memories….
The animals – no Khati, but I have the memories!
Lovely, Dana. ♥️
Thanx Mary Lou!
In my childhood home, with two boys and one sister, the crash and boom of model racing cars drove the glass menagerie to high-placed shelves. But still pretty and admired, if at a distance.
Mike, so glad your sister kept her glass menagerie up on that safe shelf!