I forgot a couple and Younkers...

I thought of a couple of the people I forgot about - I'm missing their Facebook posts.

• I bet Mary Mormon Graham is posting up a storm - readying for the garden she's planting.
• I'm wondering how my cousin Bob Stewart's hip is doing. And he's probably posted a couple pics of his cute grandkids.

Also - Thanks to my niece Leslie for sending my some James photos - my great nephew is growing up so fast! It seems like we were just having a baby shower...

If you don't live in Iowa, don't get the news or didn't see the glow on the horizon early Saturday morning in downtown Des Moines, then you may not know the historic Younkers (it's a department store) building burned down. I guess it technically didn't burn all the way down - but pretty close. I snapped a photo today.

It was hard to see - they had the street cordoned off. Here is a link to Des Moines Register photos - with some historic ones from days when the place was hopping. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/picture-gallery/news/local/des-moines/2014/03/31/45-photos-younkers-fire-devastation-on-monday/7131815/

Our family shopped in Omaha - so I don't have a lot of memories of the Des Moines downtown Younkers. Younkers was one of Dad's big Lorraine Lingerie accounts. There are stores in all of the major cities in Iowa - and border towns like Omaha and Sioux Falls. The downtown store here has been closed since 2005.

I remember shopping at the downtown Younkers during the Iowa Girls' State Tournament - when Atlantic High School's Girls Recreation Association (GRA) would send us to the Big City in school buses to watch the games. They'd park at Vets Auditorium and we hoofed it from there all over downtown Des Moines. We would arrive early and made a day of it - with shopping and lunch before the Consolation game and the Finals. Great memories with my schoolmates. You'd see girls all around town in their letter jackets.

Later, when I was in college, I decided to get a perm. Permanent wave. Big in the late 1970's and I had never had one before. I decided to make an appointment to get one at Younkers on my way driving home to Atlantic for Christmas Break. An African American stylist worked on me - and I ended up with a total afro. Her race probably had nothing to do with it...but being a small town girl, I just didn't know what to expect and when I looked into the mirror - I saw Afro! And I didn't know how to tame it. I panicked and washed it right away. It stayed puffy. I purchased a black power hair pick and went with it. Ah...the afro years. Thanks Younkers!

Later, when I was soon to be a mommy, Paul and I shopped at the Younkers Home Store downtown. We purchased a nifty bassinet - red and portable with snap on covers to protect the little bambino. It was on sale because it was missing the shoulder straps - so a costly piece was affordable for us. That thing was used by many babies - it sat on our dresser in our room with our newborns. A real thanks for that Younkers.

I wish now that I'd been able to visit the Tea Room. Tonight on the news there was a story about how many of the pieces were salvaged from the building before it was sold to be made into condos. A store in the East Village features a chandelier. West End Salvage has many of the ceiling tins. This is a sad loss for the City of Des Moines. I hope they can salvage more of the exterior.