Santa Claus Complied

Mention the word “Woolworth’s” to someone, and they will tell you their story about Woolworth’s.

One co-worker told me about growing up in a small Colorado town and riding her bike as a kid to the next town, ten miles away, in order to have a milk shake at Woolworth’s .  The woman who sells me vitamins at our local GNC told me about her father delivering goods to Woolworth’s.  A friend in her 80’s told me about meeting her girlfriends for lunch at Woolworth’s before going to a Saturday movie matinee.

I grew up in a town that had a Woolworth’s, but the town was not big enough to merit a lunch counter at Woolworth’s.  However, our Woolworth’s had everything you could think of, even live pet turtles.  I bought numerous Christmas presents at Woolworth’s, and I always made a point of stopping at the turtle tank every time I went to the store.

All the Woolworth’s in the United States have now been closed.  I found out that my friend Richard Smith was a Woolworth’s closer.

I asked Richard Smith to come on my Cherokee Street walking tour here in St. Louis.  Halfway through the tour, I had the group stop across the street from the former Woolworth’s (now a large Latino birthday party venue).  I handed the megaphone to Richard, who gave the group a brief overview of the history of Woolworth’s, his career as manager, how he closed numerous Woolworth’s in St. Louis, and how he salvaged lots of interesting stuff: menus, milk shake machines, signs.

I decided that Richard would make a good speaker for the Missouri History Museum. I pulled some strings; he got booked for March 16, 2011.  Topic: “Back to the Five and Dime”.

As soon as he was booked, I started to fret.  What if no one showed up for his talk, and he was disappointed.  What if people did show up, but were disappointed in his talk.  Fret, fret, fret.

I fretting right up to the moment his talk began.  There were plenty of people in the audience --- no need to fret about that.

Richard began to speak.  He gave a recap of his interest in Woolworth’s.  I learned things I never knew about my friend.

When he was a kid, his parents asked what he wanted for Christmas.  His answer was not a baseball mitt or a bicycle.  He wanted Santa to bring him Woolworth’s stock.  Santa Claus complied.

When he was a college student, he put WWORTH vanity plates on his car.

At age 20, he drove this car to the annual Woolworth’s stockholders meeting.  At the meeting he met the head of Woolworth’s USA, which led to his being offered a job.

I realized that Woolworth’s was not merely Richard Smith’s former employer.  Woolworth’s was Richard Smith’s destiny.   I stopped fretting. I knew the audience was going to enjoy the talk. 

They enjoyed it so much that they stormed the podium when the talk was over.  Everyone was bursting to tell Richard Smith their story about Woolworth’s.


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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com