We didn't have any Ben Franklins around here when I was growing up in the '50s, but we had plenty of Newberry's, Woolworths, and Kress's. Those five and dimes were the only places I could shop within a school girl's budget. They used to have a lunch counter where you could grab a quick, cheap bite to eat and they had fabric for all your home ec classes that used to be required in junior and senior high school. We took streetcars and buses downtown to these stores to see what our $1 per week allowance would buy and then stopped at the public library where the highlight of our week was reading, reading, reading. We roamed the downtown area on our own without fear, and this was a major city, not a small town. How I miss those days.