A Night At The Museum - Remembering Polk Brothers!

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, this past Saturday night was "Free Night at the Museums, "and I took full advantage by visiting three of them. My next stop after visiting the Denver Museum of Nature and Science was the Forney Museum of Transportation, which features exhibits of trains, planes, and old automobiles.  I have visited this place several times, but since my last visit I saw that they have added a private railroad car that belonged to none other than Polk Brothers, a Chicago appliance and electronics store that has long been out of business.  A private railroad car.  No wonder they went out of business.  In any case, this car was evidently used in conjunction with the State of Illinois' Sesquicentennial, which was celebrated back in 1968 and which I clearly remember, although the celebration was overshadowed by the many other historic events that took place that year.

Seeing the name Polk Brothers brought to mind many other Chicago department stores that existed in my youth, but have since disappeared, such as Goldblatts, Wieboldt's, The Fair Store, and of course Marshall Fields, where for many years people would gather during the Christmas season at the State Street store to protest it's takeover by Macy's. I wonder if they still do? Several of these stores I remember visiting with my mother Mary and her mother (my grandmother) Louise at the Evergreen Park Shopping Plaza.  That was the shopping center everyone in the South Side Chicago Brainerd neighborhood would patronize.  My grandmother, who did not drive, just loved to go shopping, and my mother was happy to take her.  Come to think of it, there was also a Kroch's and Brentano's Bookstore there, too.  That was where I would often hang out while my mother and grandmother did their endless shopping, which is maybe one reason why I spent most of my working life in bookstores.  But I digress.  I don't know if any of those other stores had private railway cars, but I must say from looking at the photo on the right that the Polk Brothers executives sure had a good time while it lasted.