Libbie

The last time I went to Dillard's I dated myself and mystified my 19-year-old daughter by phoning her to meet me at Joske's.

There was also a Phil's on Mandell just north of Richmond until the late fifties or very early sixties. I don't know if it co-existed with the Phil's that became the 59 Diner or if it relocated there, but my mother discovered the 59 Diner in the late 80's and began eating there often. One day when she was 80 she had her caregiver drive her there for lunch and discovered she had forgotten her money. Phil (the original Phil, from when 59 Diner was Phil's) was there, working as a host. He lent her the money to pay for her lunch. Of course, she remembered him from when he owned the Phile's on Mandell. Also in the 50's, there was a little restaurant on Richmond at Mandell, just behind where Lucky Burger is, owned by an elderly couple named Golberg or some similar name. Mr. Goldberg was regularly mightily offended when my father would ask for Worcestershire sauce to put on his roast beef; he (the owner/chef) would say indignantly, as he dutifully brought the sauce, "How can you cover up the flavor of my delicious roast beef with that hot sauce?! And besides, it's bad for you! Worcester sauce draws the water out of your system!" In the same little shopping center in the 1600 block of Richmond, there were also a variety store and a little drug store with a soda fountain where I remember getting 3 scoops of ice cream for 15 cents. I remember it. In the late sixties a red-haired high school classmate of mine named Ronnie worked there.

I remember Cadette Don, too, and I was on Kitrik in about l958. You lined up, and Kitrik asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, and then Nod the Clown handed you a present. Right about when it was my turn, a little boy wandered up and whined "I want a present! I want a doll-thing!" Kitrik murmered "Nod, give him somethng! (this was on TV, live). Nod handed him a present, and after an interminable minute, a parent rushed up and got him. And does anyone remember Uncle Bert Lynn, a rapid-fire-fast-talking kid-host? I think he was connected with the auction show where kids could bid Lucky-Bucks for toys on the air (You cut Lucky-Bucks out of emptied milk cartons, Carnation, probably, and used them like money.) Several childless neighbor ladies saved their Lucky-Bucks for me, and I bid 5,300 of them for a plastic whale that spurted water in the bathtub. What an extravagant waste! I could've had a Patty Playpal doll for that many Lucky-Bucks.