Debs' Hodgepodge Sunday, February Version

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Somehow Super Bowl Sunday has rolled around again! How did this happen? And, um, who exactly is playing?

Sorry, Pats and Hawks out there, just kidding. I don't watch much football, but when I do, I call myself a Kansas City Chiefs fan. (Sorry, you Cowboys lovers. I am a contrary Dallasite.) But I am, as always, in the Super Bowl for the ads, the half time show, and the snacks.

This year it's not just because Bad Bunny is on the bill (although Benito can sing to me anytime) but because I am a big fan of Green Day, who are opening the show. Maybe Kincaid/James readers will remember that in THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS, when Andy is supposed to be auditioning for a record producer, it's Green Day's Good Riddance that he plays. I love Billy Joe Armstrong and I'm sure he'll be his usual, um, irreverent self.

As for snacks, I'm having a hard time coming up with something for just two people (and that's assuming I can make my husband sit down and watch the game with me.) But I am tempted by this recipe for nostalgia's sake, Million Dollar Dip, made famous by Dallas's own Neiman Marcus. And maybe we'll treat ourselves to a once-a-year Bloody Mary!

We won't be snuggling up in front of the fire, however–we are in the 70s here in north Texas and will be for the rest of this week. Sending hugs to those of you digging out from more snow, and hoping you are not yet tired of chili.

Not to rub it in, but I was thrilled to get out to the farmers market yesterday, the first time since before Christmas. Apparently everyone else in my town felt the same way because the market was heaving and things were selling out by nine o'clock!

It always cheers me up to see people and dogs, and I was desperate for my favorite salad greens. Not to mention the best latte around!

It will get cold again, never fear, but meanwhile there are the Winter Olympics to watch, so we can imagine snow and ice even if we don't have it.

How about it, lovely REDDIES, what's in your Sunday line-up? Superbowl? Dip? Cheering for Ilia Malinin in the Men's Free Skate?

P.S. One last thing--a grammar question! Should "farmers market" have an apostrophe? (Plural.) My city chooses not to use one. 

Shopping down Memory Lane

Today we're reminiscing about kinder and gentler times. And though we try to keep Jungle Red Writers a safe place for our readers, an escape from divisiveness and rancor, we need to acknowledge the horrors of the last week. The shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The pipe bombs sent to people Donald Trump has villified. The killings at a Kentucky grocery store. Tragedy upon tragedy, outrage upon outrage.  The real world is very much on our minds and hopefully in our actions, too.

HALLIE EPHRON: The news that Lord & Taylor's flagship store in NYC is closing gave me an acute case of nostalgia. When I left Los Angeles to go to NYC for Barnard College, my mother took me to Best & Co. for my first real winter coat. A bit further down 5th Ave. at B. Altman's I got my first leather gloves. And a little further south an across the street was Lord & Taylor where I looked for a dress for my first "mixer." (Does anyone remember mixers??) Most of them had lovely ladies-lunch restaurants... and that reminds me of eating on a stool at the counter at JJ Newberry - five and dime.

With the recent announcement that Lord & Taylor is closing, all of those stores will be closed. Along with Korvettes and Ohrbachs where I shopped with my mother-in-law for bargains. Gimbels, and Loehmann's. Sears, which was the go-to stores for life's more mundane vacuum cleaners and appliances, is closing now.  The stores I loved growing up in Southern California -- Robinsons, I. Magnin, Lanz -- are long gone as well.

Macy's survives, only because it's gobbled up everything else. Also Saks and Bloomingdales hang on. I confess my go-to store these days is Marshalls. In ten minutes I can sweep through and see if there's anything for me there.  And of course, Amazon. Is anyone using Rent the Runway?

What stores are you missing, and is 'going clothes shopping' with a ladies' lunch something that you miss at all??

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hallie, I went to Lord and Taylor on a long ago visit to New York. How sad that it is closing. When I was a child, our big treat was going to Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas, especially their yearly "Fortnight" every fall, which was themed every year on a different foreign country. Neiman Marcus is still there, thank goodness, although they have had financial troubles the past few years, but I never shop downtown. Of my other childhood stores, Joske's was swallowed by Dillard's, and Sanger-Harris is long gone. I just read that a new smaller footprint Target is going into their space.

But my favorite and most nostalgic shopping experience is Dallas's Northpark Center. My mom and I started shopping there when it opened in 1965. (There used to be a Lord and Taylor there, but it closed years ago.) My mom and I took Kayti to Northpark, and now Kayti and I take Wren. The stores have changed, of course. Out of the four anchor stores, Neiman's, Dillard's, Macy's, and Nordstrom, Nordstrom is our favorite, but it's Dillard's for shoes!

INGRID THOFT: My nieces use Rent the Runway for prom dresses, Hallie.  I wish it had been around when I was in high school! 

Is the Lord & Taylor in Boston closing, too?  I hope not.  I have many fond memories of going in to the city on a Saturday afternoon and browsing there before heading over to Copley Place and then the Dubarry Restaurant on Newbury Street for lunch.  The Dubarry was my parents’ favorite, but it’s long gone, too. 

Here in Seattle we have Macy’s and the flagship Nordstrom store, which has had financial troubles, but seems to be on the upswing.  I worry that one day we’ll have just one of everything: Store, Bank, Airline, etc.  Not a good scenario!

RHYS BOWEN: When I first moved to San Francisco there were several elegant, old fashioned department stores: City of Paris, I Magnin, The White House. You know, the kind with a doorman who wore white gloves and a cafe where they served lady-sized portions. They all went long ago but Nieman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Nordstroms still survive.

I also remember shopping at Lord and Tayor in New York. For some reason I was buying a box of handkerchiefs as a present. Or was that in a dream? For whom would I be buying handkerchiefs?

Anyway these days I love Nordstroms for special outfits (my dress for the Edgars) and their real customer service. Apart from that I don't shop often for clothes any more. Most things stocked in Macy's don't appeal to me. I have become a fan of Steinmart when I'm in Arizona. There isn't one near me in CA. And I have to confess that I do my clothes shopping in Europe in the summer.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Rhys, you are too much ! We want to come with you. I keep thinking there’s a Filene’s—do you know it? For so many years, the flagship department store of Boston. With Filene’s Basement (in the actual basement, the real one) where a savvy shopper could truly find a treasure.

I got my very first super-duper designer suit at Bergdorf’s in Boston,  in 1983, I bet. And I could still wear it now. (If I, um, ignored the shoulders. But I keep waiting for them to come back.) That store was in a gorgeous building, some sort of mansion I think, and they would serve tea as you tried on clothes. RIP.  Another was a tiny store in Boston called Lady Grace, I know it sounds old fashioned, and it was, but you could buy slips. (Anyone, anyone?) That’s gone, too.

Shopping? Well, you know me. I don’t mind shopping but I will admit I use a personal shopper, (it’s FREE) who can put me in a special room and bring diet coke and take care of everything. A few days ago I was in a store and had to wait at a cash register—and I realized how long it had been since I did that. Amazon? Not for clothes, but whoa, for so many other things. Mailing supplies. Birdfood.  Pens. Makeup. Poof, it arrives. Hard to resist.

JENN McKINLAY: I love shopping - but only for bargains. I blame my high school years when my gal pals and I would ride the train from New London to Boston to hit Filene's bargain basement (the original one) like an elite shopping unit. I still can't buy something if I can't say I got it for fifty to seventy-five percent off. I can't help it, I'm Scottish - thrift is in my DNA. Besides what's there to brag about in paying full price? There's no sport in that at all! LOL! I do hope we don't lose all of the classic stores. Maybe they'll make a comeback, like vinyl records, when everyone gets tired of Amazon. Right?

LUCY BURDETTE: Yes, Best and Co, that's where we went for winter coats and dressy dresses in New Jersey too. I also remember Bamberger's fondly. And there was a Brentano's bookstore in that same mall, where I later worked. All gone. These days I mostly shop at a little one-off store in Guilford CT. You can tell them you need something cute for a booksigning, and they bring outfits to try on that you never, ever would have chosen. And they look great!

Hank, please tell me those big shoulder pads are never coming back...please...

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I don't know, Lucy - the high-waisted wide-legged pants of the 80s are coming back. (Of course, they themselves were a retread of a 40s look.) I'm with Jenn in that I'm the queen of discount shopping - I instinctively head straight for the end-of-season 70% off rack wherever I am. That being said, I've always gone to Macy's for fancy dresses, as my mother did before me. I'm grateful the local branches survive, but I've heard the famous and original 7th Avenue store is closing? That makes me sad. I went there on a pre-Christmas holiday with the family back in 2010 and got the girls some beautiful winter coats and boots - brands we didn't see at the Maine Mall.

As a brand new career girl in the early eighties, I loved going to Garfinkels and Woodward & Lothrop for my investment wardrobe. Woodies, particularly, was an old-fashioned temple of commerce, with a beautiful main floor that was a must-see at Christmastime. They would have a pianist playing while you shopped - tell me that's not better than elevator music! 

And thinking of Christmas, who doesn't have childhood memories of the Sear's Wishbook? My sister and I would pour over that magical catalogue for hours, each of us circling our many, many picks (in different colored pens, so as to avoid confusion.) Honestly, looking through the Wishbook and dreaming of its bounty was as enjoyable as actually getting toys on Christmas morning.

HALLIE: Oh! The Sears Wishbook! Used it for many 'art' projects.

Are you missing the grand old department stores? "Going shopping" with friends with lunch in the tea room? Are you more likely to rent the runway than shop the sales? 

For those of you who'd like to stroll down memory lane, visit The Department Store Museum.