WORKING AT WOODIES

      When I was living at home in Fairfax and studying art at The Corcoran School of Art at 17th and New York Avenue in Washington D.C. in 1965/66 I started work at Woodward & Lothrop at 7Corners the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Everyone called it Woodies and it was my favorite store.  My Department Manager whose name I can't remember now forty-seven years later was kind enough to keep me employed after the Christmas holiday was over and I talked my best friends at The Corcoran into coming to work at Woodies, too.

     There was Jackie Oberst who was small and red haired and who had been working part time at a cleaners in Vienna where she lived.  Jackie worked in the Preteen Girls Clothing on the third floor.  Jackie was in love with a boy named Bill and her favorite song was Laura Nero's Wedding Bell Blues...."When will you marry me Bill-il I got the wedding bell blue-ues".

     Stephanie King lived in Arlington and had worked at Penny's in Clarendon and at Woodies worked on the fourth floor.  This is where toys had been at Christmas but I don't remember what Stephanie sold I think it was kitchenware.  She had taken over for Dana Cox who had been a year ahead of me at Fairfax High School and who left to go back to college.  Stephanie was tall and blond and very pretty and her Mom was a beautiful red haired Irish woman.

     Khalida Baeg lived off Columbia Pike near Annandale and her father was Assistant Ambassador at the Embassy of Pakistan.  This was back when Pakistan was East Pakistan and West Pakistan and physically divided by India and before it separated and became The Republic of Pakistan and The Peoples Republic Bangladesh.  I don't know exactly which part of the country Khalida was from.  She worked as a floater working in different departments where needed but her favorite spot was Men's Furnishings (clothing and accessories)!  She was very beautiful with dark eyes and long black hair and wore the costume of her country which was a long tunic with leggings and a long scarf around the neck unless she was working at Woodies, there she had to dress "American".  Khalida was Moslem and betrothed since childhood to someone she had never met.  Having lost track of her I wonder now how that worked out.  She was becoming very Americanized.

      Stephanie talked a friend of her's, another Sandy who lived in McLean, into coming to work with us, too.  We had two other Corcoran friends whose names I can't now remember who worked one at Woodies Landmark, a brand new shopping center, and one in a shopping center in Maryland.  The girl who worked at Woodies Landmark became a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines the next year.  We'd get on the house phone and talk to each other instore and interstore at the other branches.  All of us who worked at Woodies 7Corners would catch the bus together from Washington and ride to 7Corners.  I think all buses and roads led to 7Corners at that time.

      Along with my friends from The Corcoran we worked with several young soldiers from Arlington Hall.  I can't remember their names now but one was a salesperson who dated Stephanie, and one was Security who dated the other Sandy, and one left for Viet Nam who had dated me.  I feel awful I can't remember his name.

     Woodies was four floors at 7Corners.  The top floor was china, crystal, linens, and cookware and had the offices, cashier, The Virginia Room which had a stage, employee cloakroom, restrooms, and lounge.  On the second floor was all women's apparel for every age and had an entrance from the upper parking lot and an entrance to the upper mall.  On the first floor was Men's Furnishings, shoes, lingerie, fabrics and sewing, jewelry, and an entrance from the lower parking lot and an entrance to the lower mall.

     The basement was budget clothing for the whole family, shoes and hats, etc. and I worked there in women's sportswear.  My manager used to let me dress the manikins in my department and I really enjoyed this.  It was a pleasure to sell a customer the outfit that I had put together.  Ronnie Funderburk worked on my floor in the shoe department and his dad was the Superintendent of Fairfax County Schools.  During the weeks up to Easter a friend from Fairfax High School came to work, too.  Sherrie Boyd was now Sherrie Brown and was expecting.  She was so cute.  A Funny thing is she had interviewed with me at The Corcoran and was accepted along with me and it was her dad who had been the one to take us to our interviews.  She fell in love and didn't start classes with me the fall of '65 but now had met my friends from school.

     The wrap and send desk was in the basement  and every floor had a portal where they would send merchandise down a huge spiral funnel to the wrap desk for post or delivery and all this merchandise ended up coming right out on the wrap desk.  Our friend from security decided he was going to "surf  the tunnel" and notified the ladies and set up a date and time so he wouldn't scare or hurt anyone and no one blabbed.  At first he joked he was going to ride an ironing board but instead rode a huge piece of cardboard from the top floor all the way to the basement wrap desk.  It was an event!  No one got in trouble and was the talk of all our friends for weeks after.

     Back in those days department stores were open till 9:00PM on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays only.  Every other night they closed at 6:00PM and were closed on Sundays.  I worked 6-9 three days a week and all day on Saturday.  Sometime in 1966 they started staying open late on Monday thru Friday but still closed at 6PM on Saturday and were still closed on Sunday.  This gave me a lot more hours and that meant more money.  I think I was making $1.35 an hour.  I had been working in a restaurant before coming to Woodies and I always had money because of tips even though I was only making $.50 and hour waitressing.

     Working at Woodies was a lot of fun.  I think about those friends from long ago and wonder where they are now and if they think about me and our time together, too.