Somehow stumbled upon this site (I can’t remember my train of thought, but I somehow got to the Wikipedia article about Caldor). It’s a Connecticut resident who states that the goal of his site; The Caldor Rainbow “was established in 2006 as a project organized by myself, Nicholas M. DiMaio, whose primary goals are to preserve retail history. Our objective is to track endangered, vacant, and/or iconic retail sites primarily in Connecticut and around the Northeast United States.”
Couple posts regarding Torrington– this one goes into detail about the Parkade down on Winsted Road. Changes are a brewin.’ (Pics used with permission from Caldor Rainbow)
Apparently (and I think I had actually been told this over break), they recently closed down the Burger King in the plaza (presumably to make room for the new development). I remember eating here a bunch of times as an elementary schooler (I blame my parents for my love of greasy fast food) and I remember supporting various high school groups car washes here (sports teams, charity clubs, etc). Not all too sure why they were always there. Brick floor, and lofted ceiling– also had a separate section for people eating with kids, and I even remember the ’smoking’ and ‘non-smoking’ sections, which were interesting considering it was only a fast food joint.
They’re also tearing down the rest of the plaza to make way for a Lowe’s (where Big Y currently is) and moving the Big Y to the other side of the lot (former site of Caldor and Ames). This has been in the planning stages since I was in high school, but I had completely forgotten about it, until it recently got the go-ahead. I remember going with my mother to shop at Caldor when I was but a wee one– the store closed around 1995 I think (and eventually became an Ames until like 2001)– I remember the jewelry counter was on the right when you went in because that’s where my grandmother worked– they had this giant ‘C’ on the wall above it with this weird “rainbow” of brown, orange, and yellow emanating from it. The floor also had an ugly brown-white tiling thing, while there was an endless row (must have been like eight or ten) of pay phones on the wall to the left as you walked in (behind the cash registers). I remember this well, since as an eight year-old, I used to go fishing for quarters to put in the little candy machines. Every once in a while you hit a score.
There were other stores now gone– the former House of Fabrics (whose publically traded stock nearly won me the Stock Market Competition in 1998), a used book store run by a kind (though a tad crazy) old woman named Anne, as well that old candy shop (or some store that had a large assortment of candy) located where the Radio Shack is currently. I remember always getting my mom to stop there if we had to go on a grocery run to Big Y. And when we had to get to it (the plaza itself, not just the candy shoppe), we used to cut through the back of the high school (the road was subsequently closed after Columbine to limit access to the “campus”– if you could call it that), and come in through the gigantic, and now overgrown, back of the plaza (which has such a huge lot because the plaza had a movie theater back even before me!).
I guess I find it mildly fascinating because of my deep nostalgia streak. I sometimes recall the other long-gone retail locations in the area (Bradlees’s with it’s two floors– toys were downstairs, Star’s with it’s 1960’s rainbow neon light up sign that looks like some prop out of The Price is Right, Grossman’s with it’s (what seemed like) mile-long parking lot, Price Buster with it’s manual “belts” at the registers…) when someone evokes a “remember when” moment. Of course, since I was no more than seven or eight at the time of most, if not all, of those stores closing I don’t remember full details, just sporadic memories.
Change is inevitable, however, and some retail outlets are hanging on– though (Big) K-Mart can’t be far behind the aforementioned I presume. It’s interesting to see how long smaller plazas (McDermott for one– right around the corner on Winsted Road from the aforementioned Torrington Parkade as well as the Stop and Shop plaza off Riverside) can keep it up without the “support” (in quotes because we’ve been talking about downtown revitalization since I was in in middle school, and nothing visible has been accomplished yet) of the city.
I think sometimes, however, some of these locales should step in and if not aid the shops, at least give some semblance of effort to preserve even a small sliver of history of any locations that pre-date the retail boom of the 1990’s– both run-down department/grocery store chain locales and small mom-and-poppers that were squeezed out alike. History quickly forgets that individuals like my grandmother spent their entire time in the workforce at stores like Caldor, and I’m going to be one of the last few people who even remember it’s existence. Remember, the only thing we’re remembered for after we are gone is what offer to the past.
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