At this holiday time of the year many people are racing around to malls or clicking like crazy online to complete their holiday shopping. Which led me to think about going shopping as a child and trying to remember everything I could.

The local drugstore was Mangini’s. That’s where we went for anything that was from the doctor. There was a Rexall Drugstore on the same block but I think we just went there for cards and other things. Not pills. Mr. Mangini had some candies in the store too and I remember going there to buy melt-in-your-mouth wintergreen lozenges.

Mayfair Market was our grocery store. They gave out Green stamps. I don’t remember where we had to go to get the highly coveted Blue stamps but it wasn’t in our regular circuit.

Quality bakery was where my grandmother got the occasional loaf of fancy white bread or fancy rolls for a company dinner. It was also where I lusted after a bakery birthday cake with those plastic decorations. (I never got one of those.)

Beedee’s was next to or very near the bakery. It was a hodge-podge of a store. A modern day version of a general store. They carried all sorts of fabric and patterns and my grandmother would spend hours in there getting her fabric to make many of my clothes.

There was a Rhodes department store where I got any back-to-school clothes that my grandmother didn’t make. Which means that’s where I got socks and shoes and underwear and a coat. Rhodes was also where I went to take the class White Gloves and Party Manners.

Darned if I can’t remember any other stores downtown though I remember when Sun Valley mall was built. The most exciting thing about that was that there was a gym of some kind that had a swimming pool and my mom and my grandmother joined so they could go swimming. I wasn’t allowed.

At Christmas time I remember getting the bigi Wishbook catalogs. I can’t remember going to many stores at the holidays though. Once in a while we would drive into San Francisco so we could look at all the Christmas window displays.

Your turn. What stores do you remember from your childhood? Any special or not-so-special shopping memories?