Perhaps of all the stores I remember from childhood days, the Ben Franklin store on Fulton’s court square brings back more fond memories. Simply called “the dime store,” this store was a treasure house of affordable goods for the families of Itawamba County.It was the place where packages of colorful valentines were bought in February, and plastic Halloween masks were on display during October along with candy corn, red wax lips and licorice wax mustaches. We called those masks false faces. In this store such items as rolls of toy pistol caps, miniature plastic soldiers and cowboys, colorful paper kites, and metal wind-up toys (few plastic toys during those days), And there were colorful comic books galore – from Archie and Superman to the more high-brow Illustrated Classics. But the “dime store” wasn’t only for children. All types of household items and notions could be bought here – everything from dish towels, pots, and pans to cobalt blue bottles of Evening in Paris perfume.
The Ben Franklin “dime store” in Fulton was definitely the center of attraction on Fulton’s town square for many years and today that old building continues to hold many cherished memories from times gone by.
5 comments:
Visists to the DIME Store from a young girls view point is quite different than that of the young boys; however, you did mention Evening In Paris perfume so I will expand on that for you! I remember the almost pencil thin blue bottle or flask that contained a dainty blue tassle - and I believe this Evening In Paris was called "eau de parfum", little purse sized "Coty" face powder (about the diameter of a silver dollar, I believe Tangee brand lipsticks of so few colors compared to today. But the biggest section for pre-teens had to be either the coloring books, Shirley Temple "paper dolls" and books about "The Bobbsey Twins", and of course "Black Beauty" plus the Seventeen magazine after we became "a teen" - we thought of ourself as grown up by then!
Oh, and how many nose and finger prints were slathered on the "penny candy" case each day as we drooled over what to let that penny be spent on?!? Did those penny candies look much larger inside that glass case than the ones placed in our little hand by the clerk - we seldom bought enough to merit a little paper sack. My "nickel" purchases seem to go for either a moon pie or a Baby Ruth candy bar. . . .
Are there any "Ben Franklin's" left? All the Mott's, Kresge and Kress 5 & 10 stores have disappeared so many years ago from our neighborhoods just like the things that one could buy for a penney or a nickel or two. Those were the days - Times of the Past! bettye
Yes, there are Ben Franklin Stores operating in 39 states.
http://www.benfranklinstores.com/storeselect.asp
Bob ... Thanks for these memories of my favorite store. I remember Miss Dulaney and the other fine ladies there and the absolute treasure of candy, model cars, comic books and toys....
Arvel, I had forgotten about the wonderful selection of models. I bought lots of car models there and I remember once buying a ship model and a submarine model. I remember one time I spent hours upon hours putting together a boat model and one day after one of those Mississippi summer showers, I took my boat out to a large mud puddle. After about 30 minutes of playing in the water, my boat fell into pieces, as the glue wasn't water resistant.
Bettye, thanks for the post. I had forgotten about the coloring books and the Bobbsey Twin books.
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