Concord Circa the Nineteen Fifties

Here are a few things I remember about downtown Concord when I was a child. The downtown was a busy place when I was young, there were no malls or shopping centers to suck the shoppers to the suburbs. The stores provided about everything a person needed. There were a couple of major department stores, Belk's and JC Penny, and there also several hardware stores, drug stores, clothing stores, movie theatres, shoe stores, restaurants, and others. I don't remember any craft crap stores or bail bondsman (there probably were some bondsman, but I had no reason to be aware of them at that point in my life).

My mom would often park our 1940 ford in the Gulf Station parking lot behind the Hotel Concord. I remember that there was still a livery stable beside the furniture store at the corner of Church Street and Cabarrus Avenue (then called Depot Street). A few farmers would still drive their wagons into town to shop. The metered spaces along Union Street were usually full, (mostly black cars) and there was a police officer assigned to direct traffic at the corner of Union and Depot. His name was officer Burris, and I went to grade school with his two kids, Warren and Ellen. I don't believe he had a driver's license but I could be wrong about that.

The largest store was the Belk's and it was located where Emma's , and Two Leaves and a Bud (sounds like they are selling medical marijuana instead of tea) restaurants are now. A couple of things stand out in my mind about Belk's. The elevator was not self service, an older black man operated it for you. The shoe store was down in the basement, and it had a fluoroscope to aid buyers in obtaining a good fit. A fluoroscope is a type of x-ray device which projected it's image on to a green cathode ray tube screen that you could observe through a view finder. Fluoroscopes were later banned when the ill effects of repeated exposure to radiation became better understood. I don't suspect that the casual shoe buyer was much affected by the machine, but I hate to think of the lasting effects on the shoe salesman. In any case, it was great fun to stand on the machine and watch the bones in your toes as you wiggled them inside your shoes. The Belk's also had a snack bar in the basement, and during the Christmas season had a toy store up on the third floor. I worked in the toy department one Christmas during high school.

You could pass between the Belk's and the McClellens Five and Dime by going down three steps between the two building. The steps are still there in the back of the consignment store behind the Cabarrus Creamery. Just down the steps to the left were the gold fish tank and the whites only water fountain. I guess anyone could buy the goldfish, but, well you know the rest. Sometimes my mom would buy me a bag of hot roasted red skin peanuts at McClellens. I can taste them just thinking about them.

The other big downtown store was the JC Penny, located where the Bistro is now. My grandmother worked upstairs altering clothing for the customers. I would always stop by if I came downtown hoping to cage a dime, or a least a piece of Juicy Fruit.

Gordan and I are the only two in our coffee klatch that were born and raised here. I'll have to get him to collaborate on my descriptions next time. He's a lot older than me, and probably remembers taking the trolley down to the train depot.