Memories of back-to-school days

13 years ago

To the editor:
    In the 1940s high school students could get jobs in Houlton stores at age 14 with a Social Security card. Since I was not a prize potato picker, rarely able to keep up with the digger, and the few babysitting jobs available varied in desirability, I went in to see Mr. Joe Eberle, manager at the J.J. Newberry Co. “five and ten” store. He hired me to assist Deltha Faulkner on the cosmetics counter, after school, Saturday all day and evening, and some full-time during the summer. The schedule always depended on season and customer demand.
    In four years of high school, I filled in on other counters, in the office and as a floor walker in charge of the change drawer; made price signs for displays; and did windows.
    The first window I put in, or decorated, was for the beginning of school in September. The only visual image of it is probably in my head. It was the corner window on the right as you faced the store. Decorating a window meant following rules to create an illusion, using risers, thick glass shelves and T-stands. A riser was a three-inch cylinder with a six-inch disk on each end, all of steel with a chromium finish. A thin layer of rubber coated each disk to prevent slipping. One riser could support one piece of glass or, lined up in a row with two pieces of glass meeting on a riser, could form the base for a pyramid.
    A T-stand had a heavy round base with a center hollow rod, into which was inserted a smaller rod, adjustable for height, with a horizontal bar, the top of the T. These three simple components provided endless possibilities, especially for hanging clothing, fabric, or dry goods. The illusion of filled space was created by working from back to front and allowing no holes in the display. That is, the viewer should never see through to the back wall of the window.
    After using the required items for this window, my contribution, the grabber or the attention-getter in the front, was a child’s blackboard with chalk in the tray. I had printed 2+2 on it for the first day of school. A large doll dressed in fall clothes stood at the blackboard, ready to solve the sum. Viewers would come along outside and try to help her.
Byrna Porter Weir
Rochesteer, N.Y.