Stores I Remember
All of them no longer exist -- out of business for many years. Closed by retirement or the economy.....
7th and Glory: Christian book store in Charleston Illinois; I'm still using the Bible I bought here nearly 20 years ago; and I remember their music section was tucked in a back corner of the old house, with everything packed very tightly
Lil' Dodger Pet Store: Paris Illinois; great source for aquatic snails
Stormy's Railroad Station: Mattoon Illinois; during my model railroading phase, this was "the place" for supplies
Coin Show at the Mattoon Holiday Inn: yes, there was a coin-collecting phase too
The Book Shelf: on the square in Paris; you could take old books in and trade them for store credit towards the purchase of "new" used books; the place was fascinating, and I was always excited to get to go there
Index: another one on the square in Paris; Mom bought a lot of cards here; I remember they had a few lonely aquariums with a few lonely fish at the back of the store; and you had to take a couple steps down to enter the rather large "sunken" toy section
Mister Music: Mattoon mall; my source for cassingles (who remembers those ?)
Charleston Square Pawn Shop: my source for used cassette tapes; I remember the guys in there being very watchful of their stuff when a brood of teenage boys walked in
Taco Time: Charleston; way better than Taco Bell, way better; I had an upper GI once at Sarah Bush Lincoln hospital, and this is where I got to eat with Mom (and Dad?) afterwards
I also have memories of the Paris K-Mart, which I wrote a little about here:
It's fun to think back to these places, as many of them were stops that "the guys" made on our weekend "go to the big city" trips.
Good times. Good memories.
Out for now.....
Matt
