speaked

Well sister dear.......I remember winning the contest to be in the rodeo parade, and my name was picked as the winner by a horse, there in the center part of the mall. I won a indian themed orange outfit, hats, boots, gun and holster. I was the girl winner and I think someone I knew and had a crush on was the boy winner. Does anyone remember the guy with the monkey taking money and giving you a hug? We loved Vogue shoes...wish they were still around. Bought my prom dress at Charles Ford....it was a lace pants suit with a gray velvet floor length jacket. $65.00...which back in the 60's was alot of money for a dress. Kay I knew this statement was from you right away...didnt even see your name or anything. Yep, Palm Center was important to us. And for some weird reason, apparently still is.

I lived about 2 blocks from Palm Center, and was probably in 1st grade when it opened to great excitement. I remember those big lights they used to showcase an event, as well as the fact they were holding a drawing for a free car. I still dream about Palm Center, as I really spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours there. The Alice McKean Young branch library opened soon after Palm Center, so my girlfriends and I would walk home from Hartsfield and head for the library. THEN, the fun part: we would always walk back through Palm Center and most usually stop for a cherry coke and fries at Walgreens.

I describe Palm Center as being the PERFECT shopping center. It had so many wonderful kinds of stores and shops that I can't think of anything comparable today. There was Lewis and Coker (remember that it had a soda fountain in it when it first opened?), Walgreen's, (as well as a Woolworth's), Oshman's, a gift shop called "House Beautiful", the NW Gas office, a hardware/paint store, the candy store on the corner across from where the record store(the kind you could go into those little booths and listen to the latest 45s)was - I remember kissing the giant cut-out they had of Elvis! And of course there was Golden Needle, a Merle Norman Cosmetics, Thornhill's Cafeteria, Walter Pye's, Schep's, Vogue Shoes (among other shoe stores), the toy store at the end closest to Penney's, Leder's Tots to Teens, several jewelry stores, and my personal favorite: Ruth Crow Salon of Beauty, which was in the center part where there was an upstairs.And there was that shop for men called Mr. (Something). And that coffee shop on the northwest end, close to Oshman's. Oh, and there was that high-end (for Palm Center!) women's clothing store close to Vogue but its name is gone from my diminishing memory bank.

All I know is that Palm Center was as much a part of my childhood as any single other place. So was the U'Totem there on the corner of Brownwood and South Park, and run by this little guy who probably imbibed on the job named "Shorty".My daddy worked at Wards from its opening in 1961 or so, until his retirment, which meant we had additional shelves and racks to gaze through. Remember how Wards would hold an annual contest where they put a diamond in an ice cube and the lucky finder got to keep it? And how they had a department for your animals, like horse saddles? Life was simple. We were lucky to grow up in a time when children were safe, and all we had to do was to worry about rush hour traffic on South Park so we could make it across those streets without danger. We didn't start locking the doors to our house, including when we would be gone for a week, until sometime in 1966. I remember it all so fondly.