@oldfort, my daughter rented a dress for a wedding she attended, but I don’t recall the company name. It was a beautiful dress, but the lace had a small tear in it, and the lace appliqué in the back had become unattached. It wasn’t noticeable to the casual observer, but it bothered her.
Of course she didn’t report it, because she would have been held accountable for it. And because the dress arrives a day before needed, there’s no time to reorder. She looked beautiful and the price was reasonable, but that experience did give us pause. My guess is minor damage happens a lot and is not reported.
When people rent things, whether it’s cars, apartments, or furniture, etc., they tend not to give it the same care they would if it were their own.
And then you have to wonder, was that dress really cleaned? Because wouldn’t they have found the damage when they cleaned it?
Slightly off topic, but I remember when The New York Daily News used to publish the full names and ages of the children who went to see Santa at Macy’s Herald Square. I devoured that article daily, looking for the names of kids I knew. As a Jewish child and one who attended Yeshiva, visiting Santa Claus was something that was not going to happen in my life but I wanted to live vicariously through the kids who did get to go. I always asked my friends about their visits but, having been warned by my mother, i was very careful not to let on that I knew Santa didn’t really exist.
I have gone to Santa Village because I pass by Macy’s every day to and from work. It was pretty cool but kind of overwhelming for someone who didn’t grow up with that tradition. When (if) my non-Jewish friends start having grandchildren, I plan to buy a tree ornament for the year of the birth. Someone got one for my oldest son (H is not Jewish) and we still have it.
Yes, I can see that it is, while for a boomer like me, the loss of this sort is thing is another example of what is wrong with the world today. Even in our town, the middle school paper no longer has the names of the student writers, just a first name and an initial. As a former aspiring reporter, being deprived of my byline would have been devastating.
We had Hanukah Harry, who drove a white cadillac and met Santa at the Chinese restaurant to pick up the gifts for the Jewish kids. That was a little confusing when I was very young because my father’s name actually was Harry.
My kids still talk about Hanukah Harry and when they each realized that a) he didn’t exist and b) he wasn’t their grandpa.
I don’t think we have Lord and Taylor’s out West here, never seen one. But I have fond memories of the annual Back to School shopping. My mother would dress us up, white gloves and all, and we would make the huge journey to Bullock’s and Robinson’s (west coast fancy dept stores). They had fashion shows (remember those in the dept stores?) which, of course, would be old lady clothes, nothing for back to school. But we were enthralled and it was a big deal to get our clothes at Bullocks.
Both dept stores closed down long ago, Robinson’s was bought out by Macy’s moving into West Coast markets.
My D refuses to shop department stores. Her favorite is Anthropologie…good luck affording their clothes on her beginner salary!! That’s a shopping with Mom splurge. I still go into Macy’s for certain things, maybe once a year. Don’t go into any other dept stores, but then I rarely go to the mall.
I’m from Ohio. When I was a teen, the big department stores were Higbees and Halles. Both had “teen boards” which were selected (translation…popular) girls from each of the suburban high schools in the area. These teens did fashion shows several times a year, showcasing the season clothing for sale.
I remember going to these…but really, I didn’t buy my clothes from them because they were just too costly.
The big department store treat was a dress up day to the main downtown stores for lunch…because back in the day these department stores had quite fancy dining rooms…and that was a special treat.
In my (from the Bronx) version, Hanukah Harry had a long white beard (think a Hasidic Santa), wore a black suit and drove a white Cadillac convertible, even in December. It’s not too late to incorporate him into your routine. Who knows, maybe L & T will add him to this year’s store window display.
Don’t feel bad, soozievt. I hadn’t heard of Hanukah Harry until this thread either. I can’t imagine that my immigrant parents would’ve been familiar with him.
I never realized until I was an adult that people outside of my yeshiva knew about Hanukah Harry. I always thought it was something they told us because our school was in a very mixed neighborhood/area and all of the students had daily exposure to non-Jewish kids and customs.
I’m not sure why anyone needs Chanukah Harry when we have Judah Macabee. My dad (a Rabbi) was very firm on not infiltrating Christmas into Chanukah.
But I digress. We used to visit my grandparents in New Jersey every year and one of the highlights was going to Fifth Avenue and all the lovely stores where my mother used to shop. (Her silk wedding suit was from Lord & Taylor.) I had to dress up to go to The City; no pants allowed, only dresses.
I completely understand your point. All I know is that when I was growing up and attending yeshiva, my Catholic friends always seemed like they were having more fun. Hanukah Harry may have been a reaction to that, at least for my parents. As an adult, I know that it isn’t true about them having more fun (I married an Irish Catholic), but a child’s perspective is different. Anyway, Judah Macabee was too busy defeating pagans to bring gifts around.
