Transcript

Location: Former Guggenbuehl and Nekola Department Store, 1233 Caledonia Street

Lawrence (Larry) Guggenbuehl: I’m Larry Guggenbuehl, actually Lawrence Guggenbuehl. I’m 93 years old, and I was born and raised on the Northside. I am standing at the corner of Clinton and Caledonia Street, looking across the street at the former Guggenbuehl and Nekola Department Store. It is important because it was probably the first department store that people could go to on the Northside and avoid traveling all the way downtown to do their shopping. 

My dad did all the window decorating, and at Christmastime, he decorated the northeast window on the corner with a layer of cotton. And then he displayed all kinds of Christmas items, and he sprinkled the cotton with this silver speckles to make it look like, like, snow glitter. He would put a train track– back then, it was a model train– he put the train track around, and he would run it. Not so much during the day, but like in the evening when people were shopping. And at that time, they were open on Friday nights until 9:00. So, uh, It was quite, it was quite a thing to see, and he was very good at it.