I grew up seven miles from downtown Charleston. After I had gained sufficent maturity in my mother's eyes to be alone in the big city I would spend every Saturday the exact same way:
9:12 AM - Catch the KRT to downtown. 50 cents fare.
9:30 AM - Disembark the bus at the Charleston National Bank Plaza on the Summers Street side.
9:45 - Walk down Capitol Street to National Record Mart and wait for them to open the door.
10:00 - 11:00 - Peruse and purchase the latest album of my desire (Bad Company, BTO, Doobie Brothers, etc.), or...
11:00 - 11:30 - Walk around the corner on Lee Street to Turner's Record Shop. The place always smelled musty. I still own albums I bought there and they still smell like mildew.
From there it was a free-form bounce around town depending on the whim of the group that had met up by then, but some fairly regular stops were:
The Diamond
Frankenbergers - Only when my "rich" friends were along. Their parents had a charge account.
Silver Brand Clothes
Embees (only to stand outside and watch the young ladies come and go)
McCrory's
Woolworths
Kresge's (the only downtown store with a pet department)
Kessler's Jewelry (Pawn) - You never knew which Mr. Kessler might show up - the nice one who wanted your money or the one who shooed you out of the store "I don't allow boys in my store!"
And then there were the other absolute, never-miss, day-is-not-complete-until-you-go-there stops:
Sonny's Mod Shop - Incense, posters and the coolest clothes that made your mom cringe.
Arcade Books - or at least a stroll through the Arcade on our way to...
...Arthur Treachers Fish and Chips. I could not leave town without a belly full of greasy fish and chips.
One final stop on my way to the foot of the South Side Bridge where I would hopefully catch my bus at the very last minute before it left town (but I walked home more than once because I dawdled too much at...
...Lance's! O the joy of nosing around, in and through boxes of merchandise that had seemingly been there since WWII. I'm sure I never spent a total of twenty bucks at Lance's, but I spent hours upon hours searching for the perfect something. Years later, after they had moved to Capitol Street I took my young daughter to Lance's to find some widget she needed for a school project. It just wasn't the same.
Of course some days included movies, but that is another post for another day.
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11 comments:
Sounds like fun. I didn't grow up around here but your post sure brings back memories of my childhood. Oh those were the days.
What about the Peanut Shoppe for snacks and Pepperland to watch the older kids pick out bellbottom jeans and head supplies?
As for Lance's, one time my mom was shopping in there and Mrs. Lance was working behind the counter. Another lady came in and asked Mrs. Lance for some item that was tucked away upstairs. Mrs. Lance asked my mother to tend the cash register while she went and helped the other customer. Those were the days...
The cool thing about Sonny's Mod Shop was that not only did they have clothes and bongs, they also sold police equipment like handcuffs and sap gloves. For taking care of those damn dirty hippies, I guess.
I can still smell the incense smell of Pepperland.
And right across the hall from Pepperland was Arcade Books.
Pepperland always seemed to me a to be a little bit edgier than Sonny's. I think I went in there about once.
The Arcade, though, what a great old building. I nearly cried the day they tore it down.
This sounds ALMOST like a couple of my trips to downtown Charleston in the '70s, except that I am a girl so we actually went into Embees. I lived in Cross Lanes at the time and had a couple of older cousins who took me downtown with them on the bus for Saturday outings.
My era was the fifties and sixties for downtown Charleston. I remember the Scott's drug store and wonderful milk shakes as my favorite memory.
As for Lance's Store, I remember it well. Everyone in the family worked there at some point. Maggie Lance was always so very trusting and good. She has never changed.
Very similar to my own Charlestonian wanderings, except I sure wasn't looking for any Doobie Brothers or Bad Co. when I made my trips to NRM or Turners (which began on Quarrier St - bought ELP's PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION on my first trip there - and then moved to Lee St. where it remained till it died).
One of the great rages of my life occurred when I spent all I had on THE EXORCIST (at the Virginian, natch), a film I found boring and mundane in the extreme, and then discovered Genesis' NURSERY CRYME at Turner's, though I had no $ left to buy the thing. It got away and I didn't find it again for many years.
Don't forget Galperin's, with the big record section in the basement, freaky stuff like Tangerine Dream, Amon Duul II, and Magma, tended to by one Bob Jett, who also ran Unicorn Records for about a year, over on Summers St...and Londeree Music had some albums, too, mostly classical (bought my first synthesizer there, a really grade-Z Hammond contraption).
My AD & TD vinyl are a-molderin' as I (speak).
Embees TV commercials for their pantsuits 1970's with Charleston job corps personnel
Where may embee's 1970's commercials be found please?!
I worked at Sonny’s in the 70s after school and weekends. I loved that job and Sonny was a great boss. He let me order “stuff “ and so many stories I could tell. I will tell you this, a lot of Mommas thought Sonny was a drug dealer but he wasn’t into that. Now me, well I ain’t getting into that. But I can’t believe I never took one picture of that place, the people who worked there, nothing! If anyone has any pictures please post them or send to me at
chasorellee@aol.com. Oh the title of my blog !
I thought moving from New Orleans to Charleston was going to be a step back in time, Man was I wrong, beautiful place, beautiful people ! I still love my time spent there but I NEED PICTURES…HELP !
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