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Did you ever shop at Woolworth ?

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As a kid I loved eating ice cream sundaes at the lunch counter. Was like 10 years old and felt like an adult.

 

Then very non adult of me was getting dressed in my rental tux on wedding day and realized I did not own dress socks.

 

Went to Woolworth an hour before my wedding to buy dress socks.

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As a kid I loved eating ice cream sundaes at the lunch counter. Was like 10 years old and felt like an adult.

 

Then very non adult of me was getting dressed in my rental tux on wedding day and realized I did not own dress socks.

 

Went to Woolworth an hour before my wedding to buy dress socks.

GB lines of work that doesn't involve dress socks. :cheers:

 

Oh, if you really are giving up drinking, I'll have yours if you don't want it. Or we can use orange juice.

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Knew a lot of the story but read their Wikipedia page. Very interesting beginnings

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GB lines of work that doesn't involve dress socks. :cheers:

 

Oh, if you really are giving up drinking, I'll have yours if you don't want it. Or we can use orange juice.

I didn't read the OJ thread and slowing down and giving up are two different things.

 

I seriously have slowed down minus this lost weekend. Gave up beer and bloody Mary's.

Vodka intake in half.

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I dont think we had them in the south. We had service merchandise and castor knot, both archaic retailers that no longer exist.

 

So I pick what I want, pay, take a ticket to the window, and stand around waiting for them to bring it? Wouldnt it be easier if they just put it on the floor like every other store?

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I dont think we had them in the south.

Not sure about TN but they were famously in the Carolina's

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I dont think we had them in the south. We had service merchandise and castor knot, both archaic retailers that no longer exist.

 

So I pick what I want, pay, take a ticket to the window, and stand around waiting for them to bring it? Wouldnt it be easier if they just put it on the floor like every other store?

Pretty sure Woolworths was based in the south. It was a small store, think Walgreens but smaller, with a grill and stools to eat lunch at.

 

I believe the store in Greensboro NC was famous for a protest back during the Civil Rights era (they had segregated seating areas)

 

eta: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18615556

 

 

 

On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from all-black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College walked into a Woolworth five-and-dime with the intention of ordering lunch.

But the manager of the Greensboro Woolworth had intentions of his own — to maintain the lunch counter's strict whites-only policy.

Franklin McCain was one of the four young men who shoved history forward by refusing to budge.

McCain remembers the anxiety he felt when he went to the store that Monday afternoon, the plan he and his friends had devised to launch their protest and how he felt when he sat down on that stool.

"Fifteen seconds after ... I had the most wonderful feeling. I had a feeling of liberation, restored manhood. I had a natural high. And I truly felt almost invincible. Mind you, [i was] just sitting on a dumb stool and not having asked for service yet," McCain says.

"It's a feeling that I don't think that I'll ever be able to have again. It's the kind of thing that people pray for ... and wish for all their lives and never experience it. And I felt as though I wouldn't have been cheated out of life had that been the end of my life at that second or that moment."

McCain shares his recollection of the exchanges the four African-American men had with the lunch-counter staff, the store manager and a policeman who arrived on the scene — and also a lesson he learned that day.

An older white woman sat at the lunch counter a few stools down from McCain and his friends.

"And if you think Greensboro, N.C., 1960, a little old white lady who eyes you with that suspicious look ... she's not having very good thoughts about you nor what you're doing," McCain says.

Eventually, she finished her doughnut and coffee. And she walked behind McNeil and McCain — and put her hands on their shoulders.

"She said in a very calm voice, 'Boys, I am so proud of you. I only regret that you didn't do this 10 years ago.'" McCain recalls.

"What I learned from that little incident was ... don't you ever, ever stereotype anybody in this life until you at least experience them and have the opportunity to talk to them. I'm even more cognizant of that today — situations like that — and I'm always open to people who speak differently, who look differently, and who come from different places," he says.

On that first day, Feb. 1, the four men stayed at the lunch counter until closing. The next day, they came back with 15 other students. By the third day, 300 joined in; later, 1,000.

The sit-ins spread to lunch counters across the country — and changed history.

 

 

 

 

Several lessons that all Americans could learn from that story.

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Yes I have shopped there

 

 

And to this day I still wonder how much is a Woolworth :dunno:

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And to this day I still wonder how much is a Woolworth :dunno:

I get your joke. But to answer that question $30 Million in 1912.

 

Five and dime store chain in 1912 $30 million is insane.

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Then very non adult of me was getting dressed in my rental tux on wedding day and realized I did not own dress socks.

 

Went to Woolworth an hour before my wedding to buy dress socks.

You didn't need socks. Just grab yourself a black Sharpie.

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I have. We had a Woolworth's at Eastland Mall when I was a kid.

 

While I'd known about the lunch counter protests in the south, I'd not known they were done at Woolworth's.

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My father bought me my first lawn mower and rubics cube there. Crazy Christmas.

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My father bought me my first lawn mower and rubics cube there. Crazy Christmas.

Finally last year, while I was in Malaysia with the family I learned how to solve the cube and taught my son. Then, just last week, we bought the four-square cube and I'm in the process of teaching myself how to solve that one too. I can solve the four now, but not on my own, I still have to have the algorythm cheat sheet there to help me.

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You didn't need socks. Just grab yourself a black Sharpie.

Dude. I was ready to wear white socks and my mother (none due to cancer) was having no part of that. Demanded I go out and buy black socks. She was right.

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How about Korvettes?

Yup. And TSS !

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Cube.

 

I can get it all he way down to last step on my own. Need the cheat sheet for last algorithm- son laughs at me because he can do the whole cube in less then 2 minutes

 

He also rides unicycle juggles beat anyone in 3 card monte throws cards as hard as darts. Talented kid.

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My students all do rubix cubes. They are all complete. I was astonished, since they are borderline retarded usually.

 

Then I saw one taking it apart and snapping it back together completed. Then it all made sense.

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Finally last year, while I was in Malaysia with the family I learned how to solve the cube and taught my son. Then, just last week, we bought the four-square cube and I'm in the process of teaching myself how to solve that one too. I can solve the four now, but not on my own, I still have to have the algorythm cheat sheet there to help me.

Hmmmm! When I was twelve, I was seconds away from turning that mother fawking puzzle into completion. The green and yellow dot were on opposite sides. I fawking had it. I fawking had it.

 

And my cousin with huge t!ts walks in the door (38dd) and takes off her entire bathing suit and her porky self paraded around me and the rest of us young cocjs.Got a boner just writing this.

 

Never did it. Never completely did the cube. Fawked a cousin? I'll never tell. Shopped at Woolworth?

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I have. We had a Woolworth's at Eastland Mall when I was a kid.

 

While I'd known about the lunch counter protests in the south, I'd not known they were done at Woolworth's.

You from Charlotte?

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Shoplifted from there once.

 

 

We played one hell of a lot of berserker there. Was a pretty great video game for back in the day.

 

Intruder alert! Intruder Alert!

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You from Charlotte?

Aren't we both from Macomb County, Michigan? I know the inspiration for your username comes from Macomb but I'd always gotten the sense until now that you were as well. The Eastland Mall I'm talking about is in Harper Woods at 8 Mile and Kelly about a five minute bike ride from my mother's house.

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Worked at the lunch counter in college

 

Town/State ?

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There used to be one at Southland Mall in Hayward, CA. Lunch counter was downstairs. We'd go there a lot when I was a kid. Hadn't thought about that place in years. :thumbsup:

 

 

ETA: I have an old Liberty Mustang 6 shooter that my Grandpa bought at a Woolworths back in the day.

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Yeah there used to be one at the Stuyvesant plaza in Albany NY...I think Rachel Rae worked in the same plaza before getting discovered. Still have a two drawer file cabinet I bought there years ago.

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mommy, what's a woolworth?

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How old are you? I never even seen a woolworth in real life and I was born in 76.

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Only poor people shop at woolworths and TJ max

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How old are you? I never even seen a woolworth in real life and I was born in 76.

 

I think the Birmingham one had closed, but there was one on 13 and Woodward until mid 1990s.

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after woolworths, I bring the family to brighams for ice cream

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I didn't realize my pathetic hometown of Wilkes-Barre, PA was relevant in the lore of Woolworths. I remember both Kirbys and Woolworths, but I can't recall if they were one store or separate. :dunno:

 

 

In 1884, confident enough to open another store, Sum partnered with his longtime friend Fred Kirby to open a store in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, a neighboring town to the west of Scranton. Fred had been working as the head of wholesale operations at Augsbury and Moore of Watertown, New York. Each man put up $600 to launch the Wilkes-Barre store called "Woolworth and Kirby". Fred managed the new store and, while sales were initially poor, the store soon caught on. By 1887 he used his profits to buy out Sum and expand the store under his name; Sum and Fred remained the best of friends. During this time, Frank was expanding with more stores. Sum's approach was different; he worked to perfect the look and feel of his Scranton store. It had mahogany counters with glass dividers and glass-fronted showcases. The store was brightly lit, new, and the wooden floor was polished to a lustrous shine. The layout was soon adopted by Frank for his F. W. Woolworth stores and became the standard as the two brothers persuaded family members and former co-workers from Moore's to join them in forming a "friendly rival syndicate" of five-and-ten-cent stores. Each of the syndicate chain's stores looked similar inside and out, but operated under its founder's name. Frank Woolworth provided much of the merchandise, encouraging the rivals to club together to maximize their inventory and purchasing power.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Woolworth_Company

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You're old, but yes.

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