One of my favorite stores from the past was the M.E. Moses Five and Dime Store on Main Street in Vernon, Texas. For those of you who are too young to remember, a "Five and Dime" store was an old-fashioned discount store where most items cost around five or ten cents. Of course, you would have to travel way back in time to find those kinds of bargains—much further back than my memories from the mid-1970s.
Back then, the only thing you could buy for a dime was a piece of hard candy. A comic book cost thirty cents, and a gallon of gas was sixty cents. To put this into perspective, today a comic book is about four dollars, and depending on where you are in the country, gasoline can range from two to four dollars a gallon.
The M.E. Moses store was your typical Midwestern department store of that era. It carried a wide variety of goods, including clothes, fabric, fake flowers, household items, and toys. In preparation for writing this piece, I discovered a blog post that gathered comments from readers sharing their memories of shopping for toys at Moses.
Like many others who chimed in, I have my own fond memories of shopping with my family at this popular Texas chain. I spent a lot of my time in the toy department, which I recall was located right in the center of the store, with plenty of shelf space dedicated to both high-end toys and their more affordable counterparts.
One of my purchases back then was the "Godzilla Battles the Tricephalon" playset, made by a company that produced cheaper knock-offs of Marx playsets. It wasn't the best toy, but it did come with a plastic Godzilla figure, the accompanying army men were almost half the height of the monsters, and a battleship that was only a little over twice the size of the jeep included.
Who cares about scale? It’s for kids!
I can also say that I bought my first LP record at Moses: the 1975 release of "Kiss Alive," a double album featuring the "hottest band in the world" rocking out at the Los Angeles Forum.
Ah, those were the days when both favorite monsters and rock bands were loud, fire-breathing, and larger than life.
I’ve gotten a bit off track. One of the most cherished memories I have of the old Moses department store is the fact that it had a lunch counter and soda fountain in the back. This was a place where shoppers could take a break to enjoy a sandwich, burger, or hot plate and wash it down with a chocolate malt. Even in the 70s, this retro feature felt like a nod to the 1950s.
In researching the history of the M.E. Moses chain, I found very little information online. The regional chain started in Paducah, Texas, in 1946 and had locations throughout Texas and Oklahoma. By the mid-1990s, M.E. Moses was no more than a memory.
I wish I could share more, but sadly, that’s about it.
I’m sure many of you can add to this story by sharing your own information and memories about this once-great Texas department store chain in the comments below!
- Ken Hulsey
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