Tag Archives: Frederick & Nelson

It’s that time of year again!

Posted on by
62

The Frango Mints have arrived! This is my work station in the casita. If you haven’t had a Frango Mint, you’re missing out.

I wrote about Frango Mints last year about this time HERE.

Every year for Christmas and Hanukkah, I mail out Frangos to my husband’s clients. They are a traditional holiday gift in Washington, my home state, where they were first made for Frederick & Nelson’s, a wonderful department store that no long exists.

I keep my postal workers in mind and follow their suggestions of when the best days and hours are to stop at the Carefree post office with my stacks of Frangos. It’s a tiny place and only one or two postal workers are on duty at any time. The people in Carefree who wait patiently in line behind me are so kind and nobody gets upset. I had a very different experience living in Palm Springs which I describe in last year’s story (link above). I also give Frangos to the postal workers. I notice they get showered with gifts each Christmas season.

The history of Frangos is printed on the back of the box.

I hope to get everything done and mailed in one week. After that I’ll be traveling to see my dad who was in the hospital totally out of it and incoherent for a few days. Now he’s in skilled nursing care and thriving. He’s alert, doing PT and eating well. It’s time to make some choices for his future. He may be choosing to enter assisted living at the same place where he’s in skilled nursing. He’s been living on his own, but he’s turning 94 in January. Yes, he does need more care than he needed the past few years.

What traditions do you have for the holidays? Any special foods, treats or movies?

And now for something truly embarrassing

Posted on by
28

This year for Christmas and Hanukkah, I packaged and mailed cards and Frango mints to my husband’s clients.

There’s a whole story about Frangos which are from the now defunct Frederick & Nelson’s department store in Seattle. They were first sold in the early 1900s, then bought out by Marshall Fields, Bon Marche and now Macy’s. When I was a young girl, my mom would take me downtown Seattle to Christmas shop and have lunch at F&N’s. The end of the festive trip would be one melt- in-your-mouth Frango mint.

I have sent Frangos to my husband’s clients for years. My project beings with getting padded flat rate Priority Mail envelopes and labels from the post office. My local post office didn’t have any and suggested that I order them online.

One day, I ran out of envelopes and since I had a miserable cold, my husband drove to another post office further away to find more envelopes. He said it was like pulling teeth to get envelopes. One employee told him that they only have envelopes if people come in with them and return them unused.

Fast forward a week, my husband is getting calls from his clients thanking him for the delicious chocolates.

Then one woman calls and said she was confused about this year’s gift.

“Why?” he asked.

“Well, there’s a beautiful card, a delicious box of chocolates — and one dirty gray sock!”

She emailed him a photo of the three items together. And yes, the sock was really dirty!

The client said “I know you must use a service to mail these. You may want to speak with your service.”

The only thing we could figure out is the sock came in an envelope from the post office that my husband went to. I would stack the envelopes and place the card and Frangos inside and then tear off the plastic strip, fold and seal. I never once thought to look inside “empty” envelopes.

If I’m not fired from Frango duty next year, I WILL look inside each envelope.

How would you have responded to the woman who received the dirty sock?

This is what a Frango box looked like when I was a child and Marshall Field bought Frederick & Nelson.

My 3 Favorite TV Shows from the 70s

Posted on by
2

imgres-4The horrific tragedy at UCSB this past week (where my son goes to school) has caused me to think about today’s culture versus mine growing up. Our children have been exposed to more violence than we were — and I’m afraid they are desensitized to it. This is the 911 generation. My son was in third grade when that tragedy occurred. We’ll never forget it. I’ve had discussions this week with friends reflecting on the media differences in the past 40 years. When I was a kid, we watched TV together as a family. We weren’t in our separate rooms with our own electronic devices, watching silently, alone. I’ll write more about this at another time. In the meantime, please read about my favorite sitcoms from my childhood.

Every Labor Day Weekend, Mom drove us “downtown” for back-to-school shopping at Frederick & Nelson’s — a massive department store with everything from Steuben glass to rows and rows of different colored threads and Simplicity patterns — and to shop at the Bon Marche´ and Nordstrom.  It was a 45-minute drive from our little town Snohomish to the big city of Seattle.

imgres

One year, 1970 to be exact, there was a promotion near the Girls’ clothing department to watch the screening of a TV pilot. Mom and I took a break from trying on dresses, and we sat in a dark empty room with a large screen.imgres-2Soon, I was to watching in complete fascination about a family singing in their garage who recorded a top 40 hit! Yes, it was the Partridge Family with heart-throb David Cassidy! My mom liked the show too, because of Shirley Jones, who starred in the musicals Oklahoma and Carousel.imgres-8

Once school started, I couldn’t wait to tell my friends about the cool new show that was going to be on TV in a few weeks! But, everyone already knew about it. David Cassidy was on the cover of magazines my friends read, but my mom didn’t allow —  like Tiger Beat, and 16.images-3

 At my best friend’s house, we practiced singing along to “I Think I Love You” for hours on end. (Click on the title, to hear that phenomenal song!) We turned her fireplace hearth into our mini stage, with toy guitars and a tambourine, and we dressed in white blouses, maroon cords or velvet bell bottoms. We were the Partridge Family! Now that was a TV show. Click to listen to the original happy song —
“C’mon Get Happy!”

Two other shows that we looked forward to and watched religiously were….imgres-6

The Brady Bunch and Mary Tyler Moore Show. images-1

Great TV that fortunately with DVDs and Netflix, we can enjoy today. And yes, my kids have been subjected to all three of these. They like the humor in Mary Tyler Moore best. The writers were great and the jokes are funny four decades later.imgres-5

Besides the story lines, I was so involved with the characters of these three shows. Plus, the fashions were so groovy!images-2

I’d like to hear what TV shows you liked to watch when you were young. What show was your favorite?