VoyForums

[ VoyUser Login optional ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2, 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 14:40:29 12/05/08 Fri
Author: Marilyn
Subject: Re: Block's Christmas
In reply to: Bob Young '39 's message, "Block's Christmas" on 10:34:56 12/05/08 Fri

Hi Bob,

I remember Blocks and Ayres windows. We went every year to see them. I am not sure where the things from Blocks are. Ihe Indiana State Museum has things from Ayres. The train that was on the 8th floor of Ayres where Santa was is there also.
The Cherub that was on the clock at Ayers starting in 1947 still appears the night before Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, Even though Ayres is gone. Do you remember THE MILE OF DIMES? There was 10 lines of tape from Meridian St to Illinois St.on the south side of Washington St. People would put the dimes they donated on it.That was our main thing at Christmas was to go downtown on the street car.

Marilyn

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> [> Re: Block's Christmas -- Glenn F. Holle (1951), 08:06:41 12/08/08 Mon

Bob, I can remember asking about the origin and fate of the very elaborate, animated Christmas windows and was told that the department stores around the country leased them each year and they rotated from location to location so they were always "new" to any city. I can't swear that this is a fact, and I don't know what company might have built and supplied these entrancing displays, but they had to be very expensive to own so leasing (or renting) makes sense.

[Edit]
[> [> [> Re: Block's Christmas -- Fred 64, 08:28:35 12/13/08 Sat

I can't believe no one has mentioned Kelly's past time hobbies on E. New York. The upstairs and attic of his house was a hugh model railroad, repair shop and store. Growing up next to the big 4 tracks I could watch the real thing but Kelly's was a railfans dream. I could watch the trains go around for hours. There was a big upstairs window in the front of his house and you could the trains running from the sidewalk.

[Edit]

[> [> Re: Block's Christmas -- Glenn Holle (1951), 11:25:57 12/08/08 Mon

Marilyn,
I remember the MILE OF DIMES you mentioned. It was a fund raiser for the MARCH OF DIMES charity to conquer Poliomyelitis in those days. Polio has been vanquished, but the charity has switched objectives to Birth Defects.

[Edit]
[> [> [> Re: Block's Christmas -- Randall K. Wilson (1970), 16:18:03 12/08/08 Mon

Well my folks didn't think they could afford to shop at Block's or Ayres for that matter. So if I was in either place it was just passing through. However as late as the 1960's I do remember some of the window displays and it was a "show".

Switching gears here a bit. I think of this around the holidays. John Miller ATHS class of 1942 for decades had a commercial real estate company in the old Merchants bank building (the first official Indy Skyscraper). He delt in the leasing of office space in the mile square. John ate lunch everday in the Ayres Tea Room. After Christmas he would stop by the toy department and see trains being marked down in price. John would eventually "make an offer" on all of the left over Electric Lionel Train stuff, and get some good deals. He hoarded and continued collecting this train stuff for many years.

His family told me sometime in the late 1980's he wanted to show his grandkids some of his Train collection. Hence, he took the liberty of digging through the boxes and getting out all of train engines, just the engines only. This was a chore in itself. He then made a line of new Lionel train engines. When they were all counted John had bagged a total of 151 New Engines. Now that is not to mention all the other train cars, track, and other accessories related to building a train display.

John passed away a few years ago. He was a very nice gent and had a nice family as well.

Randall K. (Randy) Wilson
Class of 1970

[Edit]

[> [> [> [> Re: Block's Christmas -- Glenn Holle (1951), 09:52:59 12/10/08 Wed

Does anyone remember taking their grandchildren to "Breakfast with Santa" in the LS Ayres Tea Room. It was "can't miss" for my mother and my kids. My mom worked in hosiery repair at LS Ayres during the Great Depression. Before she retired she was a section manager on the main floor at William H Block and the manager of the annual Hoosier Salon Art Exhibit in the Block's Auditorium... that is where I received an indelible English lesson from an artist's mother, but that is another story.
Randy, since you "switched gears", I have a Lionel electric train story about me. My father bought a starter train for my first Christmas (I was 4 mo old and could only sit beside the track around the Christmas tree and swing at it with my new peg board hammer as it came past.) The men in the family were the ones playing with "my" train. My dad was a USPS letter carrier from the depths of the Great Depression until his retirement about 35 years later. A benefit of seniority then was a downtown 4 trip(daily)route(he always carried mail on his back door-to-door). My dad closed his postal career delivering mail to the Merchants Bank Building on Meridian St near the Monument Circle and practically across Ohio St from the Main Post Office.

[Edit]

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 2.94, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2008 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.