The Lincoln’s Birthday Week That Was And White Sale

The Week That Was 2 Minutes

This edition of The Week That Was is brought to you by Wieboldt’s, currently holding their 100th Colorful White Sale. Come in and see what Wieboldt’s has for you!

Wieboldt’s was a Chicago department store that, like so many other Chicago department stores, is no longer in business. The only one that’s still open is Marshall Field’s, and it’s now Macy’s. Time marches on…

There was always a white sale (for things like sheets, towels, tablecloths tc.) running in one of the Chicago department stores on either Lincoln’s or Washington’s birthday. Washington’s Birthday is now called President’s Day in the US, although it’s still officially Washington’s Birthday, and celebrates the lives of all the presidents, including James Buchanan and Millard Fillmore. Lincoln’s Birthday wasn’t celebrated in all the states, including (not surprisingly) the Southern states. We celebrated it in Illinois because, after all, the Prairie State is also the Land of Lincoln.

All is well here. The new computer is working great and the new operating system is working perfectly. We’ve had a lot of rain this past week, but the temperatures have stayed above freezing, so no snow, which is a good thing.

All right, let’s move on with

Thanks to:

And that’s it for this edition of The Week That Was.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

10 thoughts on “The Lincoln’s Birthday Week That Was And White Sale”

    1. All the ones I remember from Chicago are gone. Marshall Field’s is now Macy’s, and the rest (Carson Pirie Scott & Co, Goldblatt’s, Lyttons, Wieboldt’s, Mandel Bros., Sears, Ward’s, Lord & Taylor, The Boston Store, Bonwit Teller etc.) are all closed. Mary and I both worked at Field’s (that’s where we first saw each other), I worked at Carson’s, I had friends that worked at Lord & Taylor… they were a huge part of life in Chicago, now all gone. I think the ones that are there now are Neiman Marcus (from Dallas), Bloomingdale’s (from New York), and Nordstrom (from Seattle).

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        1. You might not have been living here at the time. I flew in from somewhere on a Friday night and it was misting, not quite raining, but it was wet. When I came in, Mary told me they were expecting snow. We had this outside cat (she’s a whole story in itself) and I asked “should we let Lips in?” Mary said “no, she’ll be OK.” So we go to bed, and in the morning I got up and looked outside. There was a good 6″ of snow on the ground. I told Mary, and she said “Lips! We have to get her.” Poor dear was okay, but covered with snow, kind of like in the cartoons where someone gets stuck in the snow and all you can see is a mound of snow with legs. She became an inside cat after that…

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          1. We didn’t move here until 2012. I remember when I was in New Orleans on a business trip in March and it snowed. I don’t remember the year but it was in the early nineties.

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  4. Marshall Field’s is a department store I remember from my youth. I don’t think I realized that Lincoln’s birthday hasn’t always been celebrated. Interesting

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    1. The states where he lived and the ones nearby tended to celebrate it, whereas his name was anathema in the Confederate states.

      Field’s was an amazing store. Their operations on State Street in Chicago were incredible. It wasn’t just a store, it was a full experience, with four or five restaurants, fur storage, kitchens where they made candy, a department where they did custom draperies, you name it, they had it. There was a floor that had an entire bank of telephone directories and phones. It was incredible. Macy’s is reducing the operations and starting to lease office space there. The place is HUGE…

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