# We have an heirloom! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 19, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105 "2016-12-19T01:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/1 "2016-12-19T01:56:58Z")
My 29 year old son and his girlfriend are putting up the Christmas tree and he found a box of ornaments with a Woolworth sticker on it. “These are older than I am!” he exclaimed. No, not quite. But close. Then me and my equally old-assed husband started reminiscing about old area stores. And old assed Little River Band songs. Alexanders, McCrory’s, Mays and Grants were big department stores that are long gone. There was also a kitchenware chain called Lecter’s or something close. I can’t seem to find any references for it. Still wondering how cheap glass balls lasted all these years of clumsy, cat and child filled, drunken, happy, sometimes crowded Christmas trees. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/2 "2016-12-19T02:18:33Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > There was also a kitchenware chain called Lecter’s or something close. I can’t seem to find any references for it. Are you thinking of [Lechmere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechmere)? ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/3 "2016-12-19T02:23:24Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > There was also a kitchenware chain called Lecter’s or something close. I can’t seem to find any references for it. [Lechter’s.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechters_Housewares) There was one in the Randall Park Mall near Cleveland (store chain and mall both long since gone). We had a May Company, [Zayre’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayre) and Woolworth’s all in one big shopping center prior to the existence of Randall Mall. One of my best friends got her first job at the lunch counter in Zayre’s. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/4 "2016-12-19T02:26:31Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Are you thinking of [Lechmere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechmere)? Nope, that’s not it. I’m not sure of the spelling but I’m almost positive it pronounced Lecters. They sold stuff Alton Brown would go to W for on Good Eats. ETA: Yes, **romansperson**! That’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/5 "2016-12-19T02:32:21Z")
No, it was Lechter’s. I remember them well. I still have a nice set of steak knives from there.They sold kitchenware and housewares, sort of like Crate and Barrel; no sporting goods or other types of merchandise, as mentioned in the Lechmere link. I don’t know if they existed outside the NYC metro area. ETA: Two replies since I started typing. I didn’t think I was _that_ slow. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/6 "2016-12-19T03:21:25Z")
Christmas trees can get drunk? Who knew? Though that WOULD explain the looks of some of my trees of years past. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_Hey_Paula)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/7 "2016-12-19T03:39:15Z")
> [@Monstera\_deliciosa](#): > > No, it was Lechter’s. I remember them well. I still have a nice set of steak knives from there.They sold kitchenware and housewares, sort of like Crate and Barrel; no sporting goods or other types of merchandise, as mentioned in the Lechmere link. I don’t know if they existed outside the NYC metro area. > > ETA: Two replies since I started typing. I didn’t think I was _that_ slow. I remember Lechter’s, and I’ve always lived in Southern California, so it definitely existed outside of NYC. I miss that store! ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/8 "2016-12-19T04:43:31Z")
> [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](#): > > I remember Lechter’s, and I’ve always lived in Southern California, so it definitely existed outside of NYC. I miss that store! We had them in Illinois, too. I still have a few gadgets from there. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/9 "2016-12-19T11:34:25Z")
“Lechter’s, for all of your human consumption needs!” Wait, what? CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/10 "2016-12-19T12:22:07Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Christmas trees can get drunk? Who knew? > > Though that WOULD explain the looks of some of my trees of years past. I’d love to see a Christmas tree full of cats myself. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/11 "2016-12-19T14:11:44Z")
I’ve had a little blast from the past in a big-ass bag of yarn. Someone contributed a lot of old yarn to my mom’s AARP chapter, and she passed it to me since I make afghans and lap robes for them to distribute. Some of the skeins of yarn still have their original sleeves with price tags from Woolworth’s, Ben Franklin, Kresge’s, and probably other places I’ve forgotten. I remember as a teen buying yarn for under a dollar a skein, and that’s how old some of these are, so close to 50 years old. All acrylic, of course. The few skeins of actual wool didn’t fare as well. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/12 "2016-12-19T14:16:13Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I’d love to see a Christmas tree full of cats myself. An aside. There is a new commercial. It shows a beautiful room. Christmas trees, decorations, presents. Then it shows lots of various cats locked behind pet doors with a red light above. The red light goes off, the green light goes on…and well cats… ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/13 "2016-12-19T22:18:34Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Christmas trees can get drunk? Who knew? > > Though that WOULD explain the looks of some of my trees of years past. Certainly, if you fill the reservoir with Scotch and water. Not too much, though, or they’ll puke pine needles and sap all over the tree skirt. Evergreens just can’t hold their liquor. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/14 "2016-12-19T22:22:16Z")
I’ve seen plenty of Christmas trees full of cats. Most of them, in fact, since I’ve lived in (or at least visited for Christmas) a household with cats for most of my life. If you have any fragile ornaments, you have to be really careful about where you hang them. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/15 "2016-12-20T00:55:43Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Christmas trees can get drunk? Who knew? > > . Years ago, I returned to the family abode, took one look at the tree, which had been up for days, and asked my parents what the hell they were drinking. The fake tree went, top to bottom from a point out, then got instantly wider, and tapered down some. Yes, the put the bottom half of the tree together upside down. And never noticed it. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/16 "2016-12-20T01:50:45Z")
I bet you all sorry you missed all the Christmas trees we put up. Very lively trees, they were. ---
**Author:** ![Jumpbass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jumpbass/32/147_2.png) [@Jumpbass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jumpbass)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/17 "2016-12-20T17:46:10Z")
We have some very old ornaments, too. I don’t know what store they’re from, but I do know that they originally belonged to my great-grandmother, so they’re about 100 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/18 "2016-12-20T18:09:44Z")
My parents have been married for almost fifty two years. The first year they married, they had a Blue Christmas (the Elvis album came out in 1964 and 1965, my parents married in early 1966). Blue garland with blue lights and blue bulbs. None of it expensive. And my mother lived with that damned blue decorated tree for years. It wasn’t expensive, but a young family couldn’t afford much in the way of new ornaments and garland and lights. My sisters and I all have some of those fifty year old blue glass Christmas bulbs, and every year we hang them on the tree. It honors my parents fifty year marriage and their first Christmas. It makes me remember all those years of decorating with those bulbs. And it reminds me of an important lesson in life - fads change, tastes change. I suspect I am tattooless due to those damn blue bulbs. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/19 "2016-12-20T19:41:18Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > “Lechter’s, for all of your human consumption needs!” > > Wait, what?! I heard they’re having a special on fava beans this week. Pick up a nice Key-anti while you’re there, too! ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105/20 "2016-12-20T19:55:01Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > My 29 year old son and his girlfriend are putting up the Christmas tree and he found a box of ornaments with a Woolworth sticker on it. I remember finding boxes with the old K-Mart stickers on them, and the family prize was a can of Schilling paprika, the round red metal kind, with a sticker on the bottom from a grocery chain that closed in the 1960s. I don’t know how old it was, but I remember it being on the shelf when I was a wee one, several years before that. (My mother was raised as a Scandinavian farm cook; what she was doing with a can of paprika is a complete mystery.) Fun to find this stuff. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-heirloom/775105.md?page=2)