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Weeds: Local downtowns were once Christmas Central

When first child Anna was little, this time of year Pam would join some friends for an Advent retreat. That meant a father-daughter weekend and the chance to reacquaint after harvest. On Saturday night it was our routine to supper at the City Café. That corner in Sleepy Eye was then a starting point for a walk up and down Main Street to window shop.

This was the Christmas season and every large plate glass window revealed something lit and bright inside. Some had Christmas messages, some had gift suggestions, some had decorations. Chilly out, Anna was bundled in her winter wear as best as Dad could locate things. It was Saturday night and things were closed. But with a little bit of whimsy, we could turn it into an hour of grand Christmas anticipation.

There was something about being out in the dark and cold, peering in at the light and warmth that made it enchanting. There is a metaphor here about living in the dark of sin, seeking the light of the Savior. Anna was a little young for that.

Thirty years ago, most of the storefronts in downtown Sleepy Eye were occupied. There were clothing stores: Palace, Anthony’s, Schroepfer-Turbes. Three hardware stores operated: Hose Ace, Coast to Coast, and Martinka’s Our Own. Stadick Drug and Brix Drug were kitty corner from each other. The Ben Franklin Dime Store held the mother lode of toys. There were the catalog stores, Sears and Montgomery Wards, where you could order anything that couldn’t be found elsewhere.

My own childhood memories of Christmas shopping were in that downtown. There was pretty much anything a kid could want somewhere. I remember streets full of cars and sidewalks full of people on Monday nights and Saturday afternoons.

Once in a great while, we got to go to the big city of New Ulm. I’m not sure why. I think it was a great luxury for my mom. New Ulm was like Sleepy Eye with a main street of side by side by side stores, only you couldn’t see the end. It might as well have been New York City to this farm kid. A trip to New Ulm also meant a visit to that most grand of dining establishments, the Red Onion.

Most of those businesses are gone now. It was a moment in time that passed. Going in and out of stores with bracing cold air hitting your face in between is not to be found in malls or online. It exists in memory and old Christmas movies.

Sleepy Eye’s main street is a bit tattered like most small towns. It is deceptive as Sleepy Eye has developed nicely on the edges of town where there is room to build and park. Our town is maintaining in population and there are decent jobs. But lots of retail dollars go out of town now.

Herberger’s is still in New Ulm, and there are a number of nice shops downtown. But much of the retail went to K-Mart/Target/Wal-Mart. Each of those in their time was decorated with red and green for the season as you entered. Beyond the crush of Christmas finery there were probably more items in the big box aisles than all the downtown Sleepy Eye stores of my youth.

More of Brown County’s dollars flow east now. Once cars and roads got good enough, it was as if our part of the state tipped to the east. Shoppers simply rolled to Mankato and to the Twin Cities. West of our farm a ways, the state actually tips the other way. Cars roll to Marshall and Sioux Falls.

There is change to be found in larger cities, too. When we were first married I remember going Christmas shopping in the downtown Mankato Mall. Music played, Santa was in his workshop, and escalators were full of people with bags. A few years later after River Hills Mall came to be, I was in that same spot. Footsteps and voice echoed in the empty space.

In Minneapolis, there was a downtown like Sleepy Eye’s, only on steroids. Buildings went up to the sky. Dayton’s and Donaldson’s were the center of it all when I went there as a college kid. But they were losing shoppers to the malls that were popping up in the suburbs. (Garrison Keillor used to refer to his sponsors, “The Dales: Roy ‘n’ Dale, Airedale, Teasdale, Clydesdale, Chippendale, Mondale, and all the other fine shopping centers.”) Eventually those malls were dwarfed by that megahumungolopolis, the Mall of America, a place that is big, if nothing else.

We can tell much of the history of America and its economy by recalling Christmas shopping in our lifetime. If you are young and don’t recall half the places I’ve referred to, I wonder what Christmas shopping will look like for you in 50 years? Will you go to virtual stores and ask for help from a hologram-clerk?

I’ve never been a great Christmas shopper. The first gift I bought for Pam was a colorful Mexican bowl I found at an import store at Crossroads Mall in St. Cloud. We had just begun dating, and this was a perfect Christmas present. Pam was artistic and spoke some Spanish. It was the first of several gifts that were greeted with a thinly disguised grimace and a “Well…that’s…nice.” Now we leave most of the Christmas shopping to her.

I did buy things for the kids when they were young. It’s fun to pick out toys. The kid is really just an excuse to get things we want to play with. First we would buy the right amount of gifts for each child together. Then Pam would buy a few more that she liked. Then I would buy some that I liked assuring there would quite a stack under the tree. Now they get boring things like plane tickets and help with loans.  Not much fun.

Behind all the shopping is the season of Advent. For Christians there are conflicting feelings. We know this season is central to our economy; for a lot of businesses, that is where a profit is made. But our faith also calls us to quiet reflection as we prepare our heart and mind for the birth of our Savoir. In the busyness we need to leave space for Bethlehem.

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