I hope everybody got full on plenty of turkey during Thanksgiving and you were surrounded by loved ones. I do also hope that all your sports teams won.

With Christmas around the corner, there comes a time of reflection and a time of love that goes hand in hand with the season. We buy presents for the people who mean the most to us, a tradition that goes back as far as the three kings, with gold, frankincense and myrrh as they visited the newborn King.

As a kid growing up here in Murfreesboro in the 1970s, when Murfreesboro had maybe 30,000 people, we typically shopped on the Square.

There was the Hub store, which had the wolf mannequins up in the window. Mr. Arbit sold a lot of boots out of that store.

There was The Men’s Shop [pictured top], where you could buy your Sunday dress-up clothes.

Mother always liked going to Holloway’s just off the Square for clothing for us.

I remember my first charge account was at Aultman’s Jewelers, where I had a $200 credit limit with Mrs. Bean.

Of course, there was Goldstein’s, which had an escalator. They also had a cool Christmas scene in their storefront windows.

Some may remember Martin Shoes, Mullins Jewelry and Cecil Elrod’s The French Shoppe [pictured top], located near where Puckett’s is today.

Some of the places we could eat while Mother shopped were Don’s Kitchen Korner, which is now Marina’s on the Square, and of course the old City Cafe, which closed this year after 125 years of being in business.

I remember going to Brown’s Shoe Store and, for me, it was special to get to go down in the basement to try on shoes. While in the basement, one of the salespeople would drop a box of shoes down a chute which led to the basement. I always thought that was cool.

Mother also shopped at Ruby’s for her dresses. And there was Bell Jewelers.

We were big-time when we had J.C. Penney at the corner of College and Maple, today the location of Miller Loughry and Beach. The Penney Plaza, the nearby area, had little shops next to J.C. Penney.

If you needed money, you could stop by Citizen Central Bank, which was on Maple Street where the Rutherford County Clerk office is today. What was cool about that bank was they had a colony of bees that had a beehive outside the building. There was a tube that led into the building and you could see the bees in their hive. They also produced honey that the bank either sold or gave away (maybe for opening up an account). I’m hoping there are other readers who will remember this.

When doing your Christmas shopping, if the Square didn’t have everything you needed, you could head over to Harvey’s at Mercury Plaza. This is where the talking Christmas tree was. As soon as you walked in, the speaking Christmas tree would fire up like a chatterbox. Just ask Beth Burgess Brown. To me, that talking Christmas tree [pictured above] was kind of creepy.

After visiting Harvey’s and talking to the Christmas tree, you had to go down to Rose’s Department Store and see Santa Claus (Mr. Dinkins), who sometimes flew in a helicopter and was dropped off in the parking lot. For some reason, I remember waiting in line for a while to see Santa. Santa was a big deal back then and there was no mall Santa.

It was a special time.

The center courtyard of Hickory Hollow Mall is packed with shoppers as the sky begins to lighten with sunrise for Black Friday shopping on Nov. 25, 2005, the day after Thanksgiving.
Photo courtesy of Billy Kingsley / The Tennessean

When Hickory Hollow Mall opened, it opened up another dimension of shopping. It was like a rite of passage getting to go there and shop. Hickory Hollow was our first Amazon (except you had to go there to buy the merchandise).

I hope this brings back some memories for everybody, especially all of my old Murfreesboro friends.

We shouldn’t forget how they decorated on the Square with all of the decorations on the light poles, and the sound of Christmas music coming from the Courthouse. Yes, it was a much simpler time. I am very grateful to have grown up during that time here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

This reminds me, I’ve got to go do some shopping right now. I hope everybody has a merry, merry Christmas and a happy, happy new year. Always remember, go out and do something nice for somebody else. God bless!