Sweet memories pressed between the pages of my mind:

My family and my husband's family date back to around the 1850s in Decatur. My great-grandmother, Amelia Drops, was born here in 1866, and I believe her mother also was born here. So my family roots go pretty far back in this town. I started to think of all the things I did as a child and where I went. I came up with so many that I decided to categorize my thoughts into seven areas: eating and restaurants, shopping, employment, enjoyment, schools, travels and doctors and hospitals. So here are my memories from 1951 until the present.

Eating and restaurants

Steak 'N Shake was at 22nd and Cantrell streets and on Eldorado Street. A little restaurant on the corner of Wood Street and 22nd was first called the Eastwood, then the Country Cupboard, now a Mexican restaurant. The Brown Jug was on Oakland Avenue and the Blue Mill on Wood. Jan was the waitress who always took care of us at the Blue Mill.

Elam's was on West Eldorado: great tenderloins, root beer in frosted mugs and free baby bears. On 22nd, Swartz Restaurant was known for pies, the blue plate special and good service. At Christmas time, they put a toy train on a track that ran around the top of the restaurant. The Surrey restaurant was downtown. Woolworth and Kresge's had a counter that served lunches.

Howard Johnson's was on Pershing Road. On your birthday you would get a free coconut birthday cake. I loved that cake. The Rainbow was on East Wood Street, serving unburgers.

Speaking of hamburgers, Fisher's, near Roach School, made square hamburgers and put them in a brown paper bag. Sandy's was on Eldorado where the Wing Zone is now. We had the Chili Parlor on Jasper Street serving the fire bowl - after eating it, you could get your name on the wall.

I remember the Golden Glaze doughnut shop on North Water Street. We went there every Sunday after church. We ate at the Ponderosa Steak House on North Main Street, Rax on Eldorado and Tom's Grill on North Main. And Dante's restaurant was by the old train station.

Shopping

Starting with the grocery stores, I remember Vilmure's on the corner of Wood and 22nd, and the A&P on North Main. Tolly's Market started on East Wood Street and moved to the Pines Shopping Center by A.E. Staley Mfg. Co. The Westside Market was on West Wood where the DMH Thrift Shop is now.

The Dairy Lane Milk Store was on Cantrell. We would go there once a week and bring home milk in glass bottles. I remember Lambert's dime store on 22nd and Michael's drug store right across the street on Wood. We went to Michael's to buy wax teeth and wax pop bottles that had liquid in them to drink and those little dots that were stuck to long strips of paper that you could pick off and eat.

When Tolly's moved to the Pines, there was a little hardware store that went in on Wood, across from the Rainbow, but I can't remember its name. Del's Popcorn Shop was the first shop right across the street to the west from where it is now on Merchant Street, and we bought popcorn there to sneak it into the Lincoln Theatre.

A little shoe shop called Kellam's was on 22nd where Del Carmen's Pizza is now. The place in town to have your picture taken was Hubbard's Photography Studio, in the basement of their home on Lawrence Street. A Walgreen's drug store was on the lower level of the Citizens Building, where you could shop and eat. Goldblatt's was in Fairview Plaza, and Shopper's World was where Kroger is in Brettwood Village Shopping Center.

We bought school clothes at Appelbaum's. Other clothing stores were Newman's (where they had the tube system to return your sales slip) and Oakes and Van Law Carol, where brides bought their wedding dresses and had their picture taken on the staircase. (That building turned into my husband's office many years later.)

Williams Dress Shop was downtown, along with Block & Kuhl, Sessel's, the Libson Shop, Mimi's and Little Mimi's.

We also had a tailor, B.J. Jordan, whose family had owned Jordan's Tailor Shop since the 1920s. The shop was where the Salvation Army is now. Many men had suits made there. The reason I know this is that B.J. Jordan was my husband's grandfather. We now have a grandson, Jordan Tailor Dahn, named after his great-great-grandfather. And speaking of sewing, the Singer Sewing Shop was downtown.

Macon Music, where Bizou is now, was where everyone purchased musical instruments and sheet music for school. The Spin Shop downtown was where you bought records and needles for turntables. We had Post Jewelers and Carson Jewelers downtown. I also remember Cousin Fred's on Illinois 48, a variety store. At Montgomery Ward you could buy live monkeys and other animals.

Employment

My father, Robert Rauschek, worked at Borg-Warner. Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. was on 22nd. And, of course, there was Staley's, now Tate & Lyle.

Enjoyment

I remember so many fun things to do as a child, from viewing the bears in their cages in Fairview Park to skating on the ice rink there to skating on Lake Decatur every night after supper with my dad and sister, Jean. We would go to the lake and take shovels and clean a place to skate. After we were done, there was a bonfire on the shore to keep us warm.

We would go sledding on the hills of Nelson Park Golf Course for many hours in the winter. In the summer, we would sail with dad at the Sail Fish Club on the lake or go to Chap's Amusement Park or Joyland in Nelson Park (where my first date was). We would play at Lions Park and make crafts, play softball, tennis and tetherball.

Sometimes our parents would put us in pajamas and we would go to the drive-in theater by the old Firestone plant. Mom would pop a big sack of popcorn, and we would pile into the station wagon and dad would back in and we would open the back door and lie down and watch the movie. There was the Lincoln Theatre, the Rogers Theater on Wood and the Avon Theatre, which is still here. We would go to baseball games at Fans Field, off East Garfield Avenue. We had the Schaefer Bowling Alley and Eldorado Bowl.

Schools

We had five high schools: Lakeview, Stephen Decatur, MacArthur, Eisenhower and St. Teresa. I went to Eisenhower. We played football games at Johns Hill. Lakeview High School is now the home of Archer Daniels Midland Co. offices, and Stephen Decatur High School is also gone. It was where the Civic Center is now. I also attended the Lutheran School Association, and at one time it was in four locations, with classes at St. Paul's, St. John's, Mount Calvary and Concordia Lutheran churches. It now has a campus in the former Kemper Insurance building.

Travel

For many years, we could travel by train from the Wabash Depot on East Cerro Gordo Street. I remember taking my grandparents there to catch a train to go to California. At the train station was Harry Coffer's Watch Shop, the place to go to have a watch serviced. We also could fly from Decatur Airport on Ozark Airlines.

Doctors and hospitals

Forrest Martin was our doctor. I remember him making house calls. He would sit on the bed and chat, diagnose and give me medication. In those days, you had one doctor who did surgery, fixed broken bones, sewed up cuts and gave you medicine, a lot of times, in your home. Dr. Martin was not very tall, probably around 5 feet, but he was a giant of a man.

Speaking of doctors, Jack Spicer and Dale Jones gave me my first job in their office on the 12th floor of the Citizens Building. I also remember St. Mary's Hospital was on East Wood before moving to Lake Shore Drive.

A child's world

And I remember riding my bike to a friend's house. We watched them tar the streets and then put crushed rocks on top (I can still smell that tar). We drank from the garden hose. We caught lightning bugs and put them in a jar. The only thing we plugged in as a child was a radio, if we were lucky enough to have one. We had to be home by the time the streetlights were on. We did chores for maybe 50 cents a week. We went to church on Sunday. We didn't lock the doors.

Sweet memories pressed between the pages of my mind.

More readers share their memories

Illinois Cleaners: Yes, I remember Woolworth's, Kresge's, Bolay's Hobbies, Greider's Cafe, Citizens National Bank and the Surrey restaurant.

My dad, Frank James, ran the Illinois Cleaners at 241 N. Main St. for more than 40 years. As people passed the shop, they would stop to watch the man in the window clean and block hats. Many businessmen brought their hats weekly.

As a child, we frequently went to the Surrey for lunch on Saturday.

- Michael F. James, Moweaqua

Going downtown: In the late 1960s, my cousin Lisa and I visited our grandmother on the weekends.

She lived in the historical district of Decatur on West William Street. We were allowed to walk downtown with our nickels, dimes and quarters to pass the time window-shopping.

We looked around inside JC Penney, Sears, Kresge's, Hecht's, K's Merchandise and of course, Woolworth's.

Another favorite childhood memory was going downtown to sit on Santa's lap. When Lisa's grandma, Meme, was done working at Walgreen's drugstore as a cook, we would walk around, make a few purchases and then walk home. Grandma would meet us at the door, eagerly awaiting our arrival to tell her about our adventurous afternoon.

It was a happy time I will always treasure.

- Karen Ritter, Mount Zion

Dime stores: I remember Woolworth's lunch counter. My mom took me to lunch one day. I remember I had a cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich. It made me feel special because we didn't have much money to spare.

Most of my memories are about the dime stores: Woolworth's, Kresge's and Grant's. I worked during high school at Woolworth's. We knew how to make change without a cash register telling us how much. I hated to have to get something from the storeroom in the basement because there was only one light at the bottom of the stairs.

Dime stores had everything: pots and pans, dishes, irons and ironing boards, shades and curtains, women's clothes, kids and men's clothes, birds and goldfish, perfume, jewelry, sunglasses, some canned goods, shoes and the lunch counter, most everything that Kmart and Wal-Mart have now.

Those were the days. We didn't know we were poor because most of the people we knew were poor.

- Sandra Cummins, Decatur