Remember the old downtown stores at Christmas?

      One of the things lost with the moving of department stores to suburban malls is the way the old downtown stores used to decorate for Christmas.  Above is the old Wanamakers store in Philadelphia.  Gimbals and Strawbridge and Clothiers were the other big department stores.



     I remember my Grandmother and Mother going to Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas shop.  As I got older I would go along and remember the smell of roasting chesnuts and soft pretzels sold by street vendors.





   Somehow sitting at a computer and ordering from Amazon just isn't the same.