Macy's Memories

Kris Kringle and Susan Walker meet at the venerable old store.

My first glimpse of Macy's in New York was from the 1947 vintage classic Miracle on 34th Street. Dad and I watched it religiously every Christmas season, sitting in the TV den our family called The Little Room. We still love it. They were playing it at Van Dyk the day after Thanksgiving, but I had to leave, because I had been there a couple of hours already. Dad watched it to the end.

More memories:

• Dad's brother Aldo liked to make me laugh. He was funny, and kind. When I was little, he'd pull me aside, Hey Al, he'd say, remember this? And then he recited: I won't go to Macy's any more, more, more/There's a big fat policeman at the door, door, door/He'll grab you by the collar and make you pay a dollar/so I won't go to Macy's anymore. I'm not sure I have the words exactly right, or if it has to do with police officers catching kids stealing things....I don't know. Will ask Dad tomorrow--or Uncle Aldo's daughter, my cousin Linda.
• My mother liked to say It's the biggest department store in the world, though I never went there with her. A loyal New Yorker at heart, she also said, It's the longest tunnel in the world [Lincoln Tunnel] and They're the tallest buildings in the world [World Trade Center towers].
• My friends and I took the #167 bus from Dumont into the city sometimes when we were girls, and I remember being fascinated by those narrow, rickety old wood escalators at Macy's, and by Santaland, too--the little peek we got of it, circumventing the lines for Santa.  
• I got my college boyfriend a sweater there for Christmas. It was the first time I ever bought a Christmas present for a boyfriend, and it felt important and exciting to be choosing it in the men's department at Macy's. Looking back now, it was probably acrylic. I didn't have much money, and it probably didn't even occur to me then that maybe wool would be nicer. 
• When H. and I fell in love, I found it charming that he took the subway from Brooklyn to Macy's and in a single night, bought presents for his entire family up in Maine. I think he got me pearl earrings there that first Christmas, too, after calling Sis at her apartment to be sure I didn't have any. And he got Sis some white dishes to match the set she had.
• We went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a couple of times--once with H.'s brother and family, and once when Figgy was little. I remember it was freezing, and we stood on 57th Street between Eighth Avenue and Broadway. I vaguely recall Figgy wearing H.'s socks on her hands to keep warm, but I don't know now how that would be possible.
• The Flower Show, around Easter--it's lovely. Bowers and bowers of flowers.
• Last year, H. took Punch, then 2 1/2, on the train into NYC to meet Santa at Macy's. They got their photo taken with him. I think he's planning to do it again this year. We have to clear a date on our calendar [so Punch can sleep over] and on her Mommy's calendar, too.
• I just learned from Dad the other day that his mother, Rosie, used to take him to Macy's a lot--and that she would always point out to him the spot on the street nearby where she dropped a donut and left it [maybe it was too crowded to stoop and pick it up?]. I have to pursue it further--did she take all three of her little boys at once, and that's where my Uncle Aldo learned the rhyme?

Good night.