I always loved going downtown at Christmas
When I was small, I would ride a monorail in one of the department stores! It was in the basement of the Fair, or Globe store right on State Street. The monorail was attached to the ceiling and sometimes I would drop things on the shoppers below....but not often.
My mom would.go into Woolworth's and buy some pine cone incense for our little log cabin incense burner. I have about 4 of them now, and I think of those days every time I light a little cone.
But the highlight were the window displays at Marshall Field's. Starting on the north side of the store, the windows told stories or painted beautiful winter scenes that drew crowds of onlookers.
Even when Jackie and I had little kids, we would take them down to Field's for the windows. Sometimes we would have to wait our turn to view the windows and their amazing moving figures and scenery.
After Macy's bought Field's, if I remember correctly, there was a big auction or sale of all the window display stuff.
Macy's ain't Field's.
True, the big tree is still in the Walnut Room, but you can only view it from t he seventh floor. The upper floors of the downtown store are not open to the public.
The Burnham fountain has been relocated from its courtyard gathering spot to the middle of a clothing section, with no seating.
The amazing decorations that lined the main floor are now toned down, almost minimal, attempts to celebrate the holidays.
Sometimes I don't like change. I find its hard to accept and often times it takes away a comfort or tradition. that I valued.
Anyway, I still love going there. But I found you really can't go home again.
Peace and Love
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| Chicago's city hall is a beautiful building |
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| City hall entrance |
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| There used to be window displays at Christmas |
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| Does anybody really know what time it is? |
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| One of the 3 window displays on State |
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| Chicago Icons |
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| Another window |
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| And the third window....letters are missing from the message |
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| The view from the once popular seventh floor eating area. There are now only 2 food booths. |
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| The dome is still beautiful |
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| Elevator door at city hall |
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