Memories of McCrory’s from a wonderful retiree
Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2011 on Only in York County. I couldn’t think of a much better way to kick off the year – and to help my goal of “Do you remember” posts every Saturday – than to share a letter that came in the mail about a York County store of the past.
Shortly after my November post about Woolworth’s was printed in the York Daily Record, I received a package in the mail from Francis Wark.
Francis clipped the blog entry from the paper and included it with a nice letter, a card, a photo and some other material, all relating to another famous Five & Dime store – McCrory’s.
Francis writes, “I recently read your article on ‘Do you remember Woolworth’s’ in the YDR & your mentioning of McCrory’s. I was employed by the McCrory group of stores & retired after more than 42 years of service. McCrory was the Five & Dime that operated in the York Mall, not Woolworth’s. McCrory also operated stores in downtown York, Northgate S.C., York County S.C., East Market St., Shrewsbury, Hanover & Lancaster. They also operated their offices and a warehouse from a 1-million-square-foot building in the area now operated by Home Depot.”
The letter continues, “Woolworth opened its first successful store Lancaster, PA in 1879 & closed all of its USA stores in 1997. McCrory opened its first store in Scottdale, PA in 1882 and is the only national Five & Dime to operate in 3 centuries (1800-1900-2000), closing operations in 2002.”
Francis also shared the nostalgic card of McCrory’s pictured here, and wrote, “The poem on the back of same was written by me in 1988 upon my retirement.”
That poem reads:
“Without the present
There can be no future or past
So make the most of each day
And your memories will last
And last and last…”
Thank you so much, Francis, for sharing! What are everyone else’s memories of McCrory’s? I’d love to hear them and bring some of that “past” into the present.
