Going to a "real" dime store... I think it was called Lucky's (nothing to do w/the supermarket chain) on Shattuck. You could get the marvelous treats of the time... candy cigarettes, a roll of pops for your cap pistol, fizzies, baseball trading cards (Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and others) that came with a pack of chewing gum, Pez candies... and more.
If you went to Garfield, you wanted to go to Albert's for hamburgers...the best "greaseburgers" around. It's now called Fat Appies, I think.
Hink's Dept Store... and the free gifts every month... and Lester Hink's horrible poetry that came in the monthly mailer. (I still have a Hink's thermometer in my kitchen)
Damn! I'm going to have to rethink if I can make this reunion in Live Oak Park.
The pet parade in LO Park... the kid with the pet mountain lion always won... who was that? I took my cat one year ... in a birdcage... and got some kind of a prize
Enough for now....
Sarah :)