I remember both stores well, Didi! Each fall, one of the highlights was the trip my mother and I would take to Best & Co. to get a coat for me: usually always a princess-style with a velvet collar. And a nice pleated skirt, and MAYBE, if the budget permitted, a velvet holiday dress. Then we would go to Schrafft’s for lunch. Oh, those special memories! I also have wonderful memories of the Lord and Taylor store in Westchester County, where my Uncle Buddy was a manager. We’d do some shopping and then meet Uncle B. in The Birdcage restaurant for a snack, usually the Southern Ham and Cheese Biscuit plate and a vanilla coke. And I also remember Gimbels in White Plains, where my grandmother went to stock up on her favorite cotton nightgowns. It had an upper bacony where the hat department was located, and it was a never-ending source of amusement for me to sit and watch the ladies trying on the frothy, flowery hats that the store seemed to specialize in. When I became a buyer and department manager in a small, family-owned department store in Mt. Kisco, New York, I got to experience life on the other side of the counter, and it was perhaps one of the most important pieces of education I ever received. Learning how to sell in a way that was respectful of our customers was part of the training at the store, and the words "full-service" really meant something.