Back then I didn't know what to do with such an address, at a time when it was not yet normal to have a telephone at home, you had to go to the product to get it to your home, by the way, that was true for everything else except for the coals for the heating. I was still a little boy when Spock and Captain Kirk explained the future to me. As a four year old, are you surprised that the cell phone will only become really operational and available 20 years later? Or that the replicator will eventually be called Amazon, for example?

Anyway, back then it was always special for me to go shopping with my parents in the big city next door, or I would go downtown with my grandpa during a visit to my grandparents from that neighboring city. There at Corn Market 7 was the center of bliss, Roskothen, a walk-in huge department store full of toys and nothing but toys. From full-scale baby dolls for the very young to the still famous Steiff items and many more specialized products for the older and adult children. I am sure it is fair to say that all the toys for sale were here ready for the curious hands and eyes on 900 square meters. There were salesmen who spent their whole professional life there, so there were always satisfactory solutions. Since my parents often had to do their shopping, there was not always time to visit Roskothen. You had to think in advance what you wanted to look at, because to stroll through the store with its six floors was simply too big.

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At Christmas time, not surprisingly, the store was also full of customers. One needed patience in this time, until one of the many salesmen had time for one. So on the days when there was not enough time to enter the store, it remained with the enchanting view in the many shop windows of the corner building. It was so natural at that time to look at the artistic works of the trained window decorators. And they had a lot to do, because on the first floor there were six large shop windows to design, and on the second floor another eight for the larger toys that could be admired from the sidewalk above. Just now at Christmas time, the shopping streets were decorated with many light scenes, every year there was a motto for the light pictures. And so the brightly lit shop windows matched the Essen Light Weeks.

Have you ever heard about that store? Or do you know some equivalent? What is your experience? Please feel free to leave your comments.