PAST BUSINESS IN HARMON COUNTY, OK

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"PAST BUSINESS of Harmon County, OK"
A project of the Harmon County Historical Museum

Taylor's Department Store

By
Kaye Hill Brogden

Mitchell J. Taylor opened "Taylor�s" Department Store in the late 1940�s. In 1950 he married my mother, Gracie Curry Hill Taylor, and they became an amazing retail team. Mitchell Taylor understood the retail business and had a knack for developing loyal customers and stocking just the right merchandise to sell. Gracie Taylor knew how to make anything and everything beautiful...a package...store window...display case...or just the right dress for the right person. Together they spent 32 years making friends and helping the people of Hollis look their best.

I remember that Daddy built a box for me to stand on when I was eight years old, so that I could operate the cash register. He encouraged me to learn to make change, fill out a bill of sale, tag new clothing, make bows for packages, and greet customers. I was allowed to work in the store from the age of eight until the store closed in 1982. Taylor�s store was truly a family business.

Some of the employees over the years were: Treva Carrick, LaVerna Matlock, Wilma Jean Kromer, Dorothy Walkup, Lossie Matheson, Billie Hall, Amy Greenwood, Pat Long, Pearl McGill, Dorothy Abercrombie, Lennie Brown, Joe Thomas, and many D.E. sponsored Hollis High School students like Ben A. Brown, Wendell Crump and Kathy Kite.

The Taylor family tradition of retail clothing sales began with my paternal grandfather, Saied Tayar, who immigrated to the United States in 1897 from Merdjiyoun, Lebanon. His first store was in Dill City, Oklahoma and later he had a store in Mangum.

Other family members in the business were; Floyd and Gladys Taylor, Daddy�s brother and sister-in-law, the Leader Dept. Store in Quanah; Abe Shadid and Olga Shadid, first cousins �The Powder Puff� in Altus; Coy and Jimmy Shadid, first cousins, "The Fashion Corner" in Altus; Mac and Freeda Saied, Gladys Taylor�s parents, Wellington, Texas; The Dakil family, first cousins in Childress; John and Inez Shadid, cousins, in Memphis, Texas, and there were many other Taylor relatives in the "rag business" as it was called by the old timers.

Daddy told us the story of how all of the "old timers" made the decision that the way to Americanize was to separate and have lives and businesses in different towns, rather than huddle together and hold on to their traditions. Thus evolved the plan to place the names of the towns in this area of Oklahoma and Texas in a hat and for each family to draw out the name of a town. The plan was that everyone would help each other to gradually open businesses in those communities.

When Mitchell Taylor opened his store in Hollis, many in the family brought merchandise, display counters, hangers, tags and anything that could be spared from their own stores. My grandfather brought him a handsome cash register that we kept when the store was closed. Opening the store was truly a family effort.

What I remember most is the love that went into making Taylor�s a center of family clothing in Hollis. Mitchell and Gracie Taylor loved what they did, and they devoted their lives to our family and to Taylor�s Department Store.

Attending apparel market in Dallas every August was my most favorite event of the year. All of Daddy�s relatives in the retail clothing business would meet in Dallas and purchase merchandise to be sold during the fall and Christmas season. When I first began going with my parents, we would stay at the Adolpus Hotel. The merchandise show rooms were in this hotel and across the street at the Baker Hotel. Years later the apparel market was built and all of the wholesalers located their show rooms in one building.

For a little girl from Hollis, the city of Dallas was very glamorous. Visiting Neiman Marcus was an annual outing...not to shop...to see how they designed their window displays and arranged clothing in the store. I always thought Taylor�s windows were much more attractive than any store in Big D.

Another Taylor�s memory centers around the revealing of the holiday window displays. On Thanksgiving night we would go to the store and cover the windows on the inside of the glass with newspapers. In the next two or three days everything would be removed from the old displays. Much secrecy went into the design and preparation of the Taylor�s holiday windows. On Sunday afternoon and night after Thanksgiving, we would help Mom and Dad with the decorating. Doing the Christmas tree on the open ledge between the ladies/mens side of the store usually was my Aunt Tressie�s and Treva�s project. Dee and I loved to climb up on the ledge and help.

The next morning there would be large crowds of people who came to town just to see the unveiling of the Taylor�s Christmas windows. To this day, I can still see the pride in my Dad�s and Mom�s eyes as those windows were revealed.

Taylor�s came to be known for their gorgeously decorated presents. People would come from out of town to shop and have Mom, Tressie or Treva wrap their gifts.

On Christmas Eve we would always be so very busy with last minute shoppers. It was my job to get on the telephone and start calling people who had forgotten to pick up their holiday gifts. Nearly every year we would have late night calls at home on Christmas Eve from customers who had all of a sudden remembered a forgotten present.

There was a gigantic old, old safe upstairs over the ladies� dressing rooms. I always wondered how the safe had been carried up those stairs. Daddy would often send me upstairs to get change for the cash register. We never told anyone about the safe. It was a family secret. Some nights when Daddy was too tired to climb those stairs to the safe, he would place the day�s receipts in a random shoebox in the shoe department. He would turn the box upside down so it could be located if Mom or Tressie opened the store the next morning.

The memories of Taylor�s Department Store are too numerous to know which ones to tell and which ones to delete.

The following was written by my brother, Todd Taylor. I found it among my Dad�s keepsakes. Todd wrote this in 1975 or 1976 as an English assignment at H.H.S.

The wooden floors of Taylor�s Department Store squeak with age as he walks up and down each aisle; "Can I help you?" "Pants?" "Certainly, and what size?" My father has asked these questions many times in his seemingly infinite years at Hollis running a dry goods store. The mere thought of Mitchell John Taylor doing anything else seems ridiculous. He is an average sized man, five feet eleven inches and approximately 160 lbs. But that is the only way my father is average. His 60 years of living doesn�t represent age, but rather wisdom.

As a child he wasn�t blessed with many material things, but his parents made up for this with love, and an always warm and caring home. Because of his childhood, he knew the value of a dollar, but was far from tight.

He is a Christian man with very high morals. His thinking is always crystal clear and his judgment impeccable. His love for our family far exceeds anything else in his life.

He always seems to have a smile that can make a disaster seem like a simple every day occurrence. His sense of humor could not possibly be topped by any stand up comedian in the world.

His interests vary widely from Owen Stadium on Saturday afternoons to political interviews on Sunday morning. He loves the beauty of nature, Paul Harvey and new potatoes.

Only his slightly oversized nose gives any hint at all to his Lebanese heritage. He speaks Arabic fluently and can prepare a full seven course Lebanese meal.

His burning green eyes never seem to dim and many times they seem to speak so that no words need to be said. The years of hard work have brought deep lines to his face, and his hair is no longer coal black, but now silver and gray. His black bifocal glasses sit squarely on his nose and accent his dignified appearance. He could easily be mistaken for a scholarly politician or a Philadelphia lawyer.

Taylor�s Department Store closed in 1982. Everyone in the family came home to work in the store and bid farewell to the business, customers, and way of life we all valued so deeply. Mitchell and Gracie Taylor loved Hollis and they loved each other, and they shared that with all of us.

The Taylors Department Store in Hollis, OK was located on West Broadway. Currently next door to the Harmon County Historical Museum.

1) Inside Taylor's Department Store
left to right: unknown woman, Lennie Brown, Pearl McGill
Mitchell Taylor and two unknown women.
Photo courtesy of Kay Hill Brogden

2) March 6, l982
Last day at Taylor's Department Store
Gracie and Mitchell Taylor, Proprietors'
Photo courtesy of Kay Hill Brogden

LEFT CLICK on photos for larger view!

SEE on Display at the Harmon County Historical Museum
a cash register used in one of the local businesses.

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Harmon County Historical MUSEUM | 102 West Broadway | Hollis, Oklahoma 73550
(580) 688-9545 | sites.rootsweb.com/~okhcgs/

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