Hotel Sterling smorgasbords a classic downtown setting

Let’s pile up our plates with sliced baked ham, roast beef, rolls, veggies of all kinds. Whoops, don’t forget the desserts. No reason to skimp — there’s plenty more coming out from the kitchen.

Then we can relax in our finest duds over coffee and conversation in the most classic of downtown settings.

Anyone remember the Hotel Sterling Sunday smorgasbord of generations past?

Good for you if you do remember it, because that’s about all we can do these days. The old groaning table of delights in the riverfront dining room with the tall windows is long, long gone. In fact, the Sterling itself is no more, with only a vacant lot remaining.

Come to think of it, there are a lot of other things we can’t experience these days here in Wyoming Valley. For the most part, they’re just not done or not available today. Let’s look at a few of them.

Peanuts on the square: Especially for kids, no day downtown was complete without the fellow dressed as Mr. Peanut dispensing handfuls of the tasty treats from the nearby Planters nut store. If you were a bit more adventurous, you could mosey on over to the shop itself — easy to find because all you had to do was follow the nicest aroma in the world.

Kirby Park free car wash: Once you could drive your car right into Kirby Park, hook up your hose to a water faucet in the picnic area and spend Sunday washing the dirt and grime off without paying a penny. Why? The water company demanded that you pay an annual fee if you were spotted using a hose on your property. But their agents apparently didn’t check out public places on a weekend.

Marvelous shopping centers: In the post-World War II years the nation welcomed a new way to do business — the shopping center on the edge of downtown. Old photos of sites like the Gateway and Narrows on the West Side show not only a sea of automobiles but first-day crowds (with speakers and bands) so large you’d swear that Ringling was handing out free lifetime circus passes.

When double features ruled: Really, when was the last time you bought a movie ticket and were treated to two feature films in one evening? In the era when movies topped out at 90 minutes, you might enjoy a cowboy flick followed by a gangster shoot-em-up, with probably a Three Stooges or a Joe McDoakes short thrown in.

Visiting the smoke shop: No, that wasn’t a store that sold smoke. It was a smaller store that did sell all kinds of tobacco products but also sodas and snacks and always had a great magazine and newspaper rack and even a one-table or two-table pool room in back. Stop by and you’d find a few young “sports” hanging out in front, plus the proprietor, who was a world-class conversationalist.

Non-computer “windows:” In the days when a city’s downtown was full of businesses — the most spectacular of which were department stores — a pastime called “window shopping” ruled. Larger stores employed people called “window dressers” to set up displays ranging from the latest frocks to electric trains to televisions so enticing that you had to fight for position in the sidewalk crowd.

Pick your favorite impossible pleasure yet? Mine, hands down, is the Sterling smorgasbord. I even worked there for a while (nice colleagues and nice employer) and helped to set it up.

But, then again, there were the peanuts…

Tom Mooney is a Times Leader history and genealogy writer. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.