THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 3, 1996 TAG: 9610010124
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 94 lines
Assembled at a long table amid a bustling lunch crowd at Uncle Louie's restaurant, the 18 women were puzzled.
Just exactly where were they?
``Aren't we in the drugstore part of the store?'' Eleanore Olsen asked.
``No, I think we're in the stock room,'' speculated Shirley Sawyer.
Bobetta Nelson didn't think either one was right.
``The stock room was upstairs on the third floor,'' she said. ``I think we're in the back with the furniture.''
Conjuring up the exact physical layout of a store that closed 20 years ago was no easy task for these women. The landmark escalator, the cosmetics counter, the children's wear and the retail offices are long gone, replaced by wait stations, kitchen counters and risers holding tables of diners.
But in spirit, one of Norfolk's most prominent department stores of the 1950s and '60s lives on. Even though the Wards Corner branch of Center Shops closed two decades ago, a few dozen former employees still gather at area restaurants the last Tuesday of each month to eat lunch, reminisce and catch up on each others' lives.
To honor the 20th year of the store's closing, the women - ranging in age from 47 to 91 - returned to Wards Corner Sept. 24 to have lunch at their former workplace, now the site of Uncle Louie's restaurant.
``It sure looks different,'' said Sawyer, a Bayview resident who worked part-time at the store during the '50s and '60s while raising three children. ``But the people who worked here haven't really changed. They were a good bunch. We enjoyed each other so much. ... This place was a big part of my life.''
Her 47-year-old daughter agreed.
``It was like having another family,'' recalled Linda Rehm, who worked at the store evenings and weekends while attending high school and college. ``Most of the employees had worked there for a long time, and they knew everything about each other. They depended on each other ... even after leaving the store.''
``These were my best friends,'' echoed Nelson, a 73-year-old Bayview resident who worked in the children's department with Sawyer. ``We felt for one another and loved one another. You don't forget about that.''
That family feeling spilled over to their customers. For many East Side residents, Center Shops was the place to find the right shoes and proper school clothes for their children each year. Housewives would hardly think of purchasing a living room sofa or dining room chairs without first checking the fashionable displays at the store and getting some decorating tips from the employees.
``I remember the first Christmas I was there, they put me in gift wrapping,'' recalled Rehm, who recently moved back to Norfolk from Florida. ``I loved it because everyone I knew shopped at Center Shops and that way I got to see what everybody was getting for presents.''
Just about everything for young families could be found at the store. Actually two distinct areas connected by an interior doorway, the store consisted of a more upscale side for clothing, jewelry and household furnishings and an adjoining one stocked with such five-and-dime items as stationary, housewares and piece goods. For years, the Paul H. Rose family owned both Center Shops and the adjacent Roses.
``We sold everything from pots and pans to furniture, and had a lot of fun doing it,'' Nelson recalled.
In those days, shoppers established close relationships with sales clerks, often returning again and again for advice with purchases, the former employees recalled.
``People were just different then,'' Nelson said. ``They weren't as mean-spirited. But I did worry about people stealing from me. More than once I chased a couple of kids out of the store, down past the railroad tracks, trying to get stuff back.''
In hindsight, the pay was ``not great,'' she said. Nelson recalls getting a five-cent raise when promoted to department manager.
``It wasn't much,'' Nelson said. ``But considering I only made about a $1.60 an hour, I thought it was something.''
But it was not just the money that kept these women working year after year. The store felt like ``home,'' they maintained. When owners closed the doors for the last time in 1976, many of the employees - especially those who had worked there since its opening in 1952 - were ``crushed.''
``We never did find out why they closed it,'' said Helen Carter, 74, who worked at the store as a sales clerk for 24 years. ``But I was real sad they did.''
Within a few weeks after the closing, Carter and Olsen, a buyer and department manager who also had worked at the store since its opening, hatched the idea for the monthly luncheon. The two women have been the ones largely responsible for keeping the unofficial club going all these years. Each month they call almost 30 former employees to alert them of upcoming get-togethers.
``In the beginning, we had a lot more people who attended the luncheons, but now a lot have died,'' said Olsen, a 71-year-old Virginia Beach resident. ``But those of us left still get together each month. We've been friends all these years ... and we really look forward to this every month.''
Returning to their former haunt was especially sweet.
``It almost feels like we never left,'' Carter said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Former employees of the Center Shops gather at area restaurants the
last Tuesday of each month to eat lunch and reminisce. by CNB