At Eaton's Department Store

Stephen Morrissey at Eaton's Department Store around 1960

Here I am around 1960, at Eaton`s Department Store on Ste. Catherine Street in Montreal with my Auntie Mable not visible but looking on from the side, at a boat show on one of the upper floors of the store. Polaroid photos were a new invention at the time and one of the store employees took my photo in front of a boat, I think anyone who was there could get a free photograph of themselves. Of course, the first thing I did was smudge the photo with my finger since the photo was still wet and I was told to wait to let it dry. In fact, I still have this photograph. I guess the rolled-up papers were brochures from the boat show. What was the boat show? Probably a few boats with Evinrude motors attached to the rear of the boats, nothing like the monster luxury boats that you would find at a boat show today, for instance at the boat shows held at Place Bonaventure.

Many years later my wife and I ate at the famous ninth floor restaurant at this Eaton`s branch. Eaton's went bankrupt in 1999 and many of us got some good deals on clothes; the clothes are worn out and the store is gone. Even in 1999 the big department stores were closing, and with them a part of a way of life and an important institution in Canadian life.