T.G.&Y. Stores:Gone but not forgotten

[Generals64]

Here's one for you to remember...how about the chocolate covered cherries that TG&Y carried during Christmas....Life Saver candies in the little book....
How many of you remember getting your Grandmother or Aunt a Hankie for Christmas....from TG&Y?
I remember one time the store manager at the big store on S. Penn was a little bit disturbed with me and a couple of others.....He came up to us and told us to unload the Chocolate Cherries in the front of the store.......No big deal....we can handle it......3 tractor trailer trucks later we were finished....I went to Mr. Price and apologized for what ever I had done to upset his day. Didn't want to unload that many chocolate covered cherries again. To this day I almost run when I see a box of those things......However, we sold every single case before Christmas....

[FRISKY]

I like those chocolate covered cherries. I wish I could still eat them, but I can't have the sugar now.

[Generals64]

Does anyone out there remember the name of the perfume TG&Y carried during their days as strictly Variety Stores????

[Generals64]

You guys must be mere children> Blue Waltz was the perfume. I remember in Jr. High putting this horrible smelling perfume in water guns and squirting people with the smell in the back. They could never figure out where the odor came from.......I think the stuff cost $2.00 a gallon or something...Mischievious-minded children will play......How about making "stink bombs" at Grant with ball point pens and Kitchen matches...really smelled bad...got caught...really hurt too...

[FRISKY]

How about making "stink bombs" at Grant with ball point pens and Kitchen matches...really smelled bad...got caught...really hurt too...

Taught my brother how to make those and he set one off in a trash can during class and blamed it on me. I got in a lot of trouble for that.

[Generals64]

Taught my brother how to make those and he set one off in a trash can during class and blamed it on me. I got in a lot of trouble for that.

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Frisky:....one question:....were you the guys that set my trash bin on fire at 59th and Penn??????

[FRISKY]

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Frisky:....one question:....were you the guys that set my trash bin on fire at 59th and Penn??????

No, we did not set it on fire, nor do I know who set it on fire. At the time, we had just assumed the store had decided to start burning the trash themselves. Of course that was a wrong assumption, but we were young and didn’t know any better.

I remember when it burned. We hadn’t gone thru it in a while, but were still a bit upset because it was a nasty mess and we could no longer rummage thru the boxes looking for buried treasure. I will add that at the time it burned (the first time) we were at a stage in our lives where we had discovered girls and they were much more fascinating than dumpster diving.

That does bring back some memories of “treasure” we found in there. A couple times there were battery powered ‘rocking wire’ devices used on the display signs and one of my buddies found a broken, “gold”, heart shaped locket and necklace. I also found a busted watch once (Timex?). We never found anything of value that I can recall, but the fun part for us kids was “digging for treasure”.

Sometimes we would bring back things we didn’t want to bring back, like a sticky, gooey, mess on our clothes from those broken and crushed boxes of thrown away Queen Ann chocolate covered cherries.

[Generals64]

You know, you are probably the guys that kept everything in a mess on the back of the store at 59/Penn. Fess up you're the guys aren't you...you owe me a Coke this coming Saturday.......Why would you or anyone want those nasty Chocolate Covered Cherries?????

[Generals64]

There aren't many families in the OKC area that at least someone in the family worked for TG&Y at one time or the other. Shen you see them during the Holidays...see if they have any stories to share on this thread.....

[Generals64]

SAw something today, thought about old memories and this thread....while going down 26th st (S.W.) between Harvey and Robinson I looked back to the north and lo and behold there is still a TG&Y sign painted and infamy I guess. Now, that was a variety store deluxe ....most any Southsider would remember that old store....

[Generals64]

Just think, you could go into the TG&Y Store right now...find what you wanted or needed for Christmas...get checked out and be done and go look at the Christmas lights by now.....

[Generals64]

Well, if you're reading this thread I have a question for you? Do you the Tape that you're going to need for wrapping presents?....How about a good selection of Christmas candy for the Stockings? Wrapping paper? are you going to use last year's paper or look for some new....These were questions we would ask our employees to make sure they had everything ready for the late shoppers....Remember to get EVERYTHING out of the Stokroom that would sell and check in your Understocks so our customers don't have to go somewhere else....Santa is on the way....

[Generals64]

O.K., this time of the year TG&Y would be putting out all the Spray snow they could find and all the tape and Wrapping paper. Everyone in town was in a frenzy to liquidate what ever extra inventory they might have. I remember when the Cabbage Patch doll craze hit I had kept 144 of them in the back until the last moment. We put them out and limited one per customer. I had written a back up order and from no where we received 288 more of them...No one in OKC had the dolls but us. Lots of games and trading went on over those dolls. never marked them of the going price. But, you had a lot of promises made. What a year......

[village idiot]

Remember the snacktime kids?
One line of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, the Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Kids, was designed to "eat" plastic snacks. The mechanism enabling this was a pair of one-way metal rollers behind a plastic slot and rubber lips, and the plastic snacks would exit the doll's back into a backpack. The dolls didn't have an on-off switch and the mechanism was activated by putting the plastic snacks, or potentially other objects, between the lips and into the slot. The dolls were popular in Christmas 1996 and voluntarily withdrawn from the market by agreement between Mattel and the Consumer Product Safety Commission in January 1997 after several incidents where children got their fingers or hair stuck in the doll's mouth and safety warnings from Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner were issued. Customers could get their money back if they returned them to the stores.
My Granddaughter got one for Christmas, but instead of returning it, we box it up in the original box and put it away. We still have it and my granddaughter is 18 years old today with all her fingers and hair still attached.

[Generals64]

Remember those and remember the yelling that people did when they brought them back.

[bluedogok]

My dad got my sister a CPK at the Windsor Hills location, he had won a lottery at the store for the right to buy one.

[Generals64]

My dad got my sister a CPK at the Windsor Hills location, he had won a lottery at the store for the right to buy one.

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It brings back some deep memories when you mentioned the Windsor Hills Store. We were are the Deville store (3 miles west) and had all the CPK dolls. The store manager was livid about our store having so many of the dolls he startd complaining...we gave him six ((6) of the dolls so he would shut up. Your sister got one of the dolls in my store....

[bluedogok]

The DeVille store, I frequented that store often as my girlfriend during part of my senior year of high school (81-82) worked at that store.

[Generals64]

The DeVille store, I frequented that store often as my girlfriend during part of my senior year of high school (81-82) worked at that store.

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I was there.....

[Generals64]

Well, Christmas is about here...Hope you all have a good one and stay with us.

Ho-Ho-Ho........No Redskin/Generals...that is NOT what you think it means....

[Generals64]

O.K. tomorrow begins preparation for Inventory...Oh yeah, TG&Y is no more. Memories are great times from before you really had to worry. hated to do Inventory though.......

[GuyB]

I remember the one on I-240 and Pen being the worlds largest T.G&Y you could walk through there for hours and not see everything it was a great place to do last minute Christmas shopping it was sad seeing close I remember slowing removing shelves until they got to just a few isle and everything else tapped off but they where some great deals.

[Generals64]

I remember the one on I-240 and Pen being the worlds largest T.G&Y you could walk through there for hours and not see everything it was a great place to do last minute Christmas shopping it was sad seeing close I remember slowing removing shelves until they got to just a few isle and everything else tapped off but they where some great deals.

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On June 4th, 1964, freshly graduated from Grant Highschool and already a true TG&Y GUY (Airline Shopping Center), I picked up a pushbroom and began sweeping.....I swept the entire original store at 74th and Penn, store 411 before they began setting fixtures.
Next day, merchandise began to arrive and a legend was truly born. However, on June 4th, 1966 I married my best friend (highschool sweetheart) and we're stlll together (42 years) and TG&Y is a memory. Agreat one though but still a memory....Thanks Mr. Young....Mr. Price

[Generals64]

If you are reading this thread and you worked for TG&Y previously...Tell us where you worked and what years....Never know who you might run into...

[danielf1935]

I remember going to TG&Y near downtown with my grandmother, it was where Linwood and Western intersect, I think there's a bank there now.
In my teen years, I went to the one on Shepard Mall.