I well remember Western Auto and in my town, their competition Otasco. I know my kids, who are great kids, have missed the appreciation and value of things in this technology spoiled age. I guess the same could have been said of my generation by my parents.

Great memory and thanks for posting. Merry Christmas to all.

Michael

Cool story.
We only had one TV and two sometimes three channels with Dad choosing the shows too.

Great story. I'm amazed at all the detail you remember.

My brother and I got mini bikes and "Revelation" (I think) branded 20 gauge bolt action shotguns from Western Auto.

Thank you for the awesome story! It captures so well what a different time it was. A time before the internet/smartphone era is as different a time to the current youngster generation as the black and white photos seemed to me. They delineated a time which just HAD TO BE like a zillion years ago, right!? When in reality, it was but a dozen or so years before my time.

It's funny how our parents wanted to give us that big gift just as much as we wanted it.

Merry Christmas Para!

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
This made me think about Christmases past also.
1967, my mother spent way too much on my Christmas that year. ...

Thanks for the story Shovelhead. Very nice memories.

Great story of your youth. I always thought you were a little younger but you're 6 years older than me which makes you.....
Just kidding.
Saturday morning brings back a lot of memories of cartoons and breakfast in front of the TV. We only had one and didn't get a 2nd for a while.
Not sure of the Western Auto though. I don't know if there was one here. I do remember Higbees and Hills department stores. Sears was a constant also.
Gonna have to ask my Dad about some of the stores around and if there was a Western Auto.

Happy Christmas, Para.

tac & mrs tac

Merry Christmas Para. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the memory reset, Para. 1969 seems like a magic year looking back. I graduated high school, listened to Age of Aquarius and many other tunes that had melodies, Woodstock happened, read Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, went bear hunting, joined the Air Force, watched an AMERICAN walk on the moon, and then there were the girls….good trip down memory lane

Nice story, Para. I often think of past Christmas days. When I was very young, maybe 4 or 5 (early '50s), I still remember the tree with gifts underneath. And for some reason people were coming to visit and my grandparents (who I lived with) bought a toy zeppelin and put it under the tree unwrapped. Not for me, but for a child of the folks who were coming.

Every time I see A Christmas Story and Ralphie's little brother is playing with his new Zeppelin, I remember that scene at home.

Nice Story....it does bring back memories, you have a few year on me but my first TV I had in my room was a handed down 13" B&W TV and our local Western Auto closed probably 10 years ago...it still carried guns and ammo.

Not unusual in my area, we still have a grocery store close that carries ammo and has a gun shop on the 2nd floor.....you have to take the back stairs, if you did not know it was there you could never tell.

The only thing I ever cared about in Western Auto were the bikes. I only ever had second hand bikes from yard sales before and though they served a purpose, they were nothing to look at. The day I got a new blue and chrome dirt bike from Western Auto I was king of the world. I’d love to know how many miles I put on that thing.

Great story Para, thanks for the story. Yours jiggled my own memory about a buddy selling me his barely used $50 similar TV in that same year.

and "just like that, 1969 became 50 years ago" as well. The experience fresh as yesterday.

Great story! Reminds me of getting my first clock/radio maybe a couple of years earlier but not for Christmas. My dad took me to the store and it was understood he was just taking me and it was eventually being bought with my money, about $8 I think. When I thanked him for taking me, he presumed I was thinking him for buying it and I had to clarify I was buying it was only thanking him for taking me to the store.

The story also reminds of the time I got just what I wanted for my birthday. Probably about 1967 or 1968, I got a gold metallic Buzz Bike III from Western Auto. I remember dad giving me the keys to go look at my birthday present in the trunk. The box had cutouts for hand holes, and I could see the brake cables through the holes. I think the bike was about $47.

Many summers ago at our cottage near Lake Erie, my father bought a boat and outboard motor (7 & 1/2 hp Scott Atwater). My buddy also had a boat about the same size, probably about 16ft. But his boat had a 10 hp Wizard. I really envied him because that motor compared to mine was dynamite.

He would tell me that his dad got it at Western Auto and they sold the best and fastest outboard. At that time I had never heard of Western Auto. It seemed to be a magical place that had anything and anything. To this day I have never been in the store, don't know if they are still in business, but the sound of that name brings back so many memories of long ago summers fantasizing about having a Wizard from Western Auto.

Great story.
We lived in a rural area and only received one channel clearly, CBS. years later my father bought a rotary antenna and we were able to pick up NBC but it wasn't all that clear.
The oldest historical memory I have is of the Cuban Missile Crisis followed by the Kennedy assassination, years of Vietnam news stories, then the moon landing in '69.
After the late news they signed off for the night.
The lack of unlimited full time entertainment through electronics was that we went outside to play (exercise) and seemed to use our imagination more.
One of my great disappointments of that era was anticipation of watching the moon landing and walk that was scheduled to happen on my birthday. Certainly one of mankind's greatest achievements and it would forever be associated with my very own birthday.
Then late that evening they said things were going ahead of schedule and it would actually happen the night before, in prime time. The one time the government was able to do something right and they screwed it up for me.

Merry Christmas, Para. I enjoy your way of telling a story.

Probably the same year I got the whole Mat Mason set event the bubble buggy and space station....

That was also the Christmas my younger brothers and I all got new bicycles and BB guns. Daisy, of course. The bikes were Western Auto brands. I still consider Christmas 1972 to be the best during my youthful past: bicycles and baseball gloves! Out on my kitchen table for Christmas is a 1965 Christmas catalog from Western Auto. I treasure it.