Memory Lane.......Happy Birthday

I saw the above photo on Facebook, it is down town Bradenton, FL in 1909 when my grandmother was a child. Not the Bradenton I live in now or as I have known it since 1944

Today is my 69th birthday and it caused a flash back in time.

As I sat and remembered how this town has changed, I remembered Window Shopping on Sundays with my parents in Savannah GA,

 Daddy parked the car in front of these same windows and we either sat and watched the people strolling or joined them. Stopping to stare in each window.

Who says we can't go home again and back to the past, thanks to Google Earth, I can show you what the stores looked like in the 50's because they still look the same.

the cars have changed, ours was an old Desoto, then a 53 Pontiac. 

two of the theaters have been re purposed but are still in use. 50 cents is all I paid on Saturdays.

Above is Kress dime store, now known as The Kress Building. Inside that front door by the cars, I turned left to the counter to buy mothers Evening In Paradise, which is what she got for birthday and Christmas. Down the stairs into the basement was the wonderland of toys, a whole basement full of toys..

Visit Jazzd Tapas Bar to see the under ground bar.

Now that basement is the bar above, and the upstairs are turned into lofts and sold as condos, and the table where I bought the Evening in Paradise is now The Gap.... I am glad they kept the buildings and made them into multi-use to restore them.
 it was a little odd on my google trip to see my old dress store is now a McDonalds...but the building remains the same .