Recorded in Weirton, West Virginia
This snapshot was collected in conjunction with the Museum on Main Street program at the Smithsonian Institution. It is part of the "Be Here: Main Street" collection, intended to capture Americans' stories about their neighborhoods, waterways, towns, traditions, and personal experiences.
What's your favorite memory of living in a small town?
"My favorite memory of Weirton, West Virginia, was the late '60s, early '70s when I had my first job at Weisberger's Men Clothing store. We were opened 9:00 to 5:00 every day other than Mondays and Thursdays until 9:00. When the holiday shopping came, we were open every evening, the day after Thanksgiving until the day before Thanksgiving from 9:00 to 9:00.
People found time to shop. People enjoyed Christmas shopping. People came downtown. People fed the meters. People went to Shaw Jewelers. They went to Weisberger's. They went to the bus terminal for coffee. Downtown was terrific! Saturday mornings at 9:00 everybody was downtown. The children, the parents, the grandparents. They all went shopping together. The PNW bus, when it used to come downtown, it was full with people. People in droves got off the bus, and they got on the bus.
The pharmacy was next door to Weisberger's, and they were constantly busy. We had an automotive dealer on the corner that was always busy. Those were those days where people went to our local downtown to shop, not out of town to a mall or to a plaza or something like that. We kept everything in downtown. That's my great memory of downtown Weirton."
Asset ID: 7459
