Favorite Rike's Moments

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Favorite Rike's Moments

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RIVERDALE RAT 129 posts Sep 04, 2009 6:02 AM	Just wondering how many of you may have fond memories of the old Rikes store in downtown Dayton. I still remember the shopping bag rack's that sat near every entry/exit door where you could buy a green Rike's shopping bag for a 5 cents. the toy department,the record shop and the cafeteria on the Mezzanine where all of the hippie's used to hang out, the candy counter and the metal charge plates that was the only cashless way to shop. (Bankamericard and Mastercharge was not even around in those day's) I remember the little newsstand that used to sit outside on the corner of 2nd and Main st. there used to be a little guy named Wilbur who worked there in the evenings, he always wore a green leather cap. try as I may I cant remember where the Bakery was located.
dquartz 35 posts Sep 04, 2009 6:31 PM	I mostly just remember the window displays and the tike shop. did rikes kettering have a window display ? I am trying to remember some of the buisness's across from rikes on main street but i am drawing a blank.
dquartz 52 posts Sep 05, 2009 10:58 AM	riverdale..i was thinking there was a music store around there somewhere too. dont remember the frisch's too well either.
RIVERDALE RAT 153 posts Sep 05, 2009 12:01 PM	dquartz: there was a Bernie's music store around the corner and up on second St. they relocated there from 5th and Jefferson. The Frisch's was a long skinny one and I can remember you used to have to walk clear in the back of the place and go down a set of narrow wooden stairs into the basement to use the Restroom.
samstone 31 posts Sep 05, 2009 12:16 PM	I remember a very old lady that used to sit just inside Rikes, wearing all black with a hat and vale over her face. This was in the early 70's. It seemed like every time I went in she was there.
RIVERDALE RAT 159 posts Sep 05, 2009 3:37 PM	Marck1957: Riight you are. I forgot all about the Citizens Federal and Trumans. do you remember the Frisch's ?
dquartz 63 posts Sep 05, 2009 5:05 PM	riverdale.. ok, i remember it now it was on 2nd street the place had a blue front on it...right ?
RIVERDALE RAT 166 posts Sep 05, 2009 5:21 PM	dquartz: I think it may have had a blue front. it sit right on the corner next to the pay parking lot. I knew Bernie he was a short slender guy with black hair and always wore flashy suits. I used to park in the pay lot to go hang out at the Frisch's. most of the waitress's parked there too. sometimes I would walk them to their car after the place closed. I remember having a major crush on 2 of them at the same time..LOL. I also knew the guy who worked in the lot, his name was Elzie Leach. he lived in riverdale somewhere I think on Shaw street. his wife used to drive a cab for Checker.
dquartz 72 posts Sep 06, 2009 4:59 PM	does anybody remember if rikes had a pet department ?
RIVERDALE RAT 182 posts Sep 07, 2009 2:07 AM	dquartz: Yes, Rikes had a pretty decent pet department, it was on one of the upper floors (6th maybe) I can remember one time they had a Toucan for sale there and I used to go visit him every week.
newsnot 70 posts Sep 07, 2009 3:22 AM	riverdale: did you see the two pictures of the wild cat coaster. well in the one four of the houses are still standing but all the other stuff is gone.
driver62 228 posts Sep 07, 2009 7:38 AM	Didn't Rikes have a bakery on the ground floor of the parking garage? I seem to remember that.
Marck1957 73 posts Sep 07, 2009 7:58 AM	Yes, there was a bakery counter in the lobby of the parking garage at Second and Ludlow. It was closed in later years, perhaps due to the bakery counter being relocated inside Rike's at the Second Street entrance. They would wrap up your goodies in a white box with green string tied around it. My favorite?...their chocolate eclairs and their cake donuts. The actual bakery itself was not somewhere where customers would see it. I think I've heard that it was in the newer part of the building (the part with the stainless steel on the outside), on maybe the 9th or 10th floor.
RIVERDALE RAT 185 posts Sep 07, 2009 10:19 AM	newsnot: Yes I seen all of the wildcat photos. the arial shot was a good one too. I wonder if they saved any pieces/cars or anything from it. from what the article said the coaster was one of the items that did not sell.
RIVERDALE RAT 186 posts Sep 07, 2009 10:37 AM	driver62: I agree with Marck. there was a bakery sales counter in the lobby of the garage, but not the actual bakery. I remember when the garage first opened, they had an umbrella stand in the lobby and another inside of the Ludlow street entrance. if it was raining you could grab an umbrella and walk across the street and drop it off at the other stand. needless to say this courtesy was short lived due to the umbrellas finding their way off property.
RIVERDALE RAT 189 posts Sep 07, 2009 12:26 PM	What I remember most was the color coded parking levels and elevator buttons. I was just a kid and this was the first time I had ever seen that. I only remember Blue, Green, Orange, Grey and Yellow. Of course later on this was done almost everywhere but it was new to me.
dquartz 85 posts Sep 07, 2009 8:33 PM	are we talking about the rikes garage at 2nd and ludlow or the rikes garage at main and monument ?
RIVERDALE RAT 200 posts Sep 07, 2009 9:07 PM	dquartz: we are talking about the garage at 2nd and Ludlow. Last Edited by on Sep 08, 2009 8:48 AM
RIVERDALE RAT 216 posts Sep 09, 2009 9:18 AM	I cant remember but it was a lot (more than a thousand dollars) that was a ton of money back then.
bigbob 90 posts Sep 09, 2009 10:04 AM	I worked in the record department back in 1969, remember going down the freight elevator to the basement and walking through a tunnel where it went under the street and under the parking garage. That is where the trucks came in to deliver the merchandise. I would load up the records and push a cart back to the elevator and go back up to my work area, can't remember what floor it was on. I had a 1967 Sumbeam Tiger then and remember some girl telling me that she seen someone driving it down Main street in it, i ran out to find it was a friend of mine that hot wired it. Some friend, anyway i got fired because i was gone too long. I also passed Phil Donohue on the escalators. He just stared straight ahead when i said hello. Last Edited by on Sep 09, 2009 10:10 AM
RIVERDALE RAT 221 posts Sep 09, 2009 5:56 PM	bigbob: Thats a very unique and interesting memory of the old place. (it beats any of mine) do you remember the old metal Charge Plates that the Rikes used to use ?
dquartz 110 posts Sep 09, 2009 7:46 PM	bigbob..was the toucan there in the pet department when you worked at rikes ?
bigbob 92 posts Sep 10, 2009 4:23 AM	Everyone, i have some trouble with my memory and can't answer all your questions. I do miss the days i lived in Dayton.
dquartz 122 posts Sep 11, 2009 5:01 PM	anygody remember waht floor the book department was on ? uused to love going there and buying hardy boy books. they were my favorites and rikes always had the best selection.
RIVERDALE RAT 245 posts Sep 12, 2009 12:11 AM	dquartz: Dont remember the book department too well but I remember the scout department. they had a huge one. if memory serves I bought a Boy Scout Hand book there for $1.75. it must have been 2 inches thick. also you could buy copies of Boys Life Magazine from a rack near the cash register. I miss those simple easy days.
dquartz 139 posts Sep 12, 2009 3:26 PM	rikes had a full service restaurant at one time. does anybody remember which foor it was on ?
RIVERDALE RAT 251 posts Sep 12, 2009 4:55 PM	dquartz: it seems like Rikes did have a full service restaurant at one time located on one of the upper floors (5 maybe) I think it may have been known as Rikes Coin Room or something like that. I do remember the lunchroom/restaurant on the Mez. area where all of the hippies used to hang out but I know this was fairly new at the time. Last Edited by on Sep 13, 2009 4:09 AM
dquartz 143 posts Sep 12, 2009 8:22 PM	does anybody remember the big drug store that sit across from Rikes on the southwest corner of 2nd and main street ? it was there in the early 60s. what was the name of it ? Last Edited by on Sep 12, 2009 8:23 PM
dquartz 159 posts Sep 13, 2009 2:07 PM	riverdale thanks, seems like i do remember a coin room restaurant. i wish we could find somebody who worked at rikes on here. i have a lot of questions about the store but i dont want to bog down the thread with things most people wont remember.
RIVERDALE RAT 287 posts Sep 14, 2009 8:39 PM	dquartz: I do remember a drug store on that corner but I think it closed in the early 60s. I dont remember it still being there when Rikes opened the new part that used to be the Miami hotel. I have no hope of remembering the name of it but I have seen several other posts from people asking about a Gallahers drug store on 2nd street. this well could be the one. I am almost sure the restaurant was called the Coin Room.
dquartz 184 posts Sep 15, 2009 9:44 PM	anybody remember the clearence racks/departments in the basement ? you could get a lot of good stuff up to 50% off.
pie8me 54 posts Sep 16, 2009 7:10 AM	1970 plus. On Second, next to Bernie's was a bank. It was a triangular building with a stainless steel facade. If you went to the top of the Rike's garage and looked down on the bank across the street, you could see a roof painted green with a full rack of pool balls, (very big). Later the pool balls were replaced by a fanned Royal Flush, clubs if I remember correctly. Never knew the back story on it. Anyone remember it or who may have been the facilitator.
RIVERDALE RAT 312 posts Sep 16, 2009 7:16 PM	pie8me: Last time I knew, Bernie's was located on 2nd Street between Main and Jefferson on the North side of the Street. the only thing East of Bernie's was a big pay parking lot. the lot stretched all the way from Bernie's to Jefferson and North to the alley beside Western Union. did all of that change ?
dquartz 201 posts Sep 19, 2009 2:01 PM	pie8me...iam kinda curious about this building as well. any idea when it was built or what corner it sets on ? is bernies still there where riverdale said or did they move as well. riverdale rat... i dont remember the western union, was it in an alley ?
Mikey 46 posts Sep 19, 2009 2:11 PM	RE: The newstand outside the Rikes building: In my earliest memories, it was a shabby wooden building. Later, around the mid-fifties, it was rebuilt with the same mod-aluminum trim that the Rikes store had used in an exterior facelift. The inscription around the top read "We occupy the whole building." The word was that Rikes paid for the overhaul/rebuild. ---------- Mikey, Gatlinburg, TN Last Edited by on Sep 19, 2009 2:16 PM
Mikey 48 posts Sep 19, 2009 2:23 PM	Nearly EVERYBODY got their first credit account at Rikes (with a metal plate.) They were generous to us young people who generally had no credit at all. I think that my limit was $50 - 100, in the very early sixties. My newly minted wife couldn't get one, she was intstructed by the credit department to sign "Mrs. Mikey"..... That worked with no questions. ---------- Mikey, Gatlinburg, TN Last Edited by on Sep 19, 2009 2:24 PM
dquartz 205 posts Sep 19, 2009 2:49 PM	Mikey...i remember the little metal cards and the machines they used to press the raised print onto the ink so it would show on your recipt. if iam not mistaken beermans had the same thing...good memories.
RIVERDALE RAT 328 posts Sep 19, 2009 4:35 PM	dquartz/Mikey: Those were known as Charge Plates. most all of the major stores had them. Rikes, J.C. Penny's, Beermans, Elders, Sears. I remember the recipt they used to give you when you purchased something was known as a Charge Slip.
RIVERDALE RAT 329 posts Sep 19, 2009 4:49 PM	Mikey: I forgot the Gold part of the restaurant name, but I was pretty sure it was called Coin something. thanks for adding the rest of it for us. My earliest recolection of the Newstand was with the mod-aluminum exterior. I would assume that Rikes probably came out of pocket to help remodel it so it wouldnt be an eyesore in front of their store. it would have been good PR as well because the stand was operated by Goodwill Industries and they employed the disabled. it was kind of ratty looking inside, I remember the guys saying that there was a hole worn through the floor that they kept covering with boards. the lettering on the back of the newstand that read "We occupy the whole building." was always there during my era as well. I used to know the guys who worked there, Wilbur worked the night shift and there was a guy who was sort of the manager, who worked during the day. I will post his name here as soon as I can remember it, he was pretty well known around Downtown.
RIVERDALE RAT 330 posts Sep 19, 2009 8:41 PM	Mikey: I just remembered the guys name that worked days at the newsstand, his name was Rick Polk. he used to walk with canes because he was involved in some sort of vehicle accident and injured his legs badly. if memory serves his fathers name was Elmer and he used to sell the Dayton Newspapers up at the Delco Plant. it was probably the Journal because I can remember seeing him up around there very early in the morning. Rick lived in Riverdale, on Mc Daniel street (I think).
rodat6 101 posts Sep 19, 2009 8:46 PM	Around 1955-56 I sold the Dayton Daily Newspapers on various downtown street corners. I sold the most papers at Rikes around closing time when a lot of people were exiting. I do not remember a newsstand and don't believe I would have sold papers with a newsstand close by. Hmmm, I sold on the south side of the store where many exited at closing time. However, as I stated before, I sold the fewest papers in the Sons Bar area but made the most money and back then it was money. lol. Sons Bar was like on 5th and Ludlow, S/E quadrant.
RIVERDALE RAT 334 posts Sep 19, 2009 10:08 PM	rodat6: I remember sons bar, that was a pretty rough spot at one time, was it not ? I canpromise you that there was a newsstand there, it used to set on the NW corner of 2nd near Main.
Steve K 130 posts Sep 20, 2009 3:20 PM	Bernie's Music moved out north, maybe 20 years ago.... think it was on North Dixie somewhere. Not sure if it's still around, I haven't been out that way in years. We had the little metal charge plates at Becker Electric in 1975, but I don't think we'd been using them for a couple years... not sure we even still have one as a souvenir.
pie8me 57 posts Sep 20, 2009 4:25 PM	OK, I'm completely confused now. What was the aluminum/stainless faced building that could be seen from Rikes garage and what street was it on. It's face was at a 45 degree angle to the street forming a triangular shaped building. The murals I mentioned were on the roof of this structure. I always believed it to be a bank. Any help and anyone remember the murals?
RIVERDALE RAT 339 posts Sep 20, 2009 5:35 PM	pie8me: what time period are we talking here ?
Marck1957 77 posts Sep 20, 2009 6:10 PM	pie8me....There was and is a building at the NW corner of Jefferson and East Second Street that is shaped like a triangle, has a stainless steel front with no windows, and did have pool balls painted on the roof. But I don't think that you could have seen it from the main Rike's garage, which was two blocks west. Rike's filled the whole black west from Main Street back to Ludlow. The garage was on the NW corner of West Second and Ludlow Streets, past Rike's. In the middle of the block that Rike's occupied, there was a newstand at the exit doors that was very small, maybe 6X10 feet, and covered with silver aluminum or stainless steel. On the roof there were letters that said "we occupy the whole building". It was a downtown fixture for many years. They sold all kinds of magazines and newspapers, so I can't picture you selling newspapers there. But...across the street from pool ball building, which was across Main Street and east to the end of that block, there is a parking garage at the Kettering Tower (aka Winter's Building) that looks down upon it. You sure could have seen the painted balls from there, and I can imagine you selling papers there. Could this be what you are remembering?I was never in the pool ball building with the stainless steel front, but I think it may have been a bank. I think it is empty and has been for awhile. Now I'm asking if any of you remember: Did the guy who owned the little newstand got killed in a robbery?
RIVERDALE RAT 342 posts Sep 20, 2009 6:45 PM	Marck1957: during my time period 60s-early 70s the Newstand was operated by Goodwill industries. I remember this well cause the guy who ran the place during the day was always fussing and fuming over some guy named Burt who would come over from the Goodwill Headquarters and complain about how he was doing things. Burt was their main boss. perhaps the place may have been sold to a individual at a later date but i dont think so because I had always heard that they were not permitted to sell it. (dont know this to be a fact) I never heard of a robbery or any trouble there, other than a few minor disputes with customers. I hope someone has a answer to your question because I would like to know as well.
Curt Dalton 186 posts Sep 20, 2009 7:21 PM	There used to be a man downtown by the name of Joe Horvath that sold papers. He operated several newstands over the years, from a two-wheel stand at Fifth and Main in 1926, to stands at Fourth and Main, then Fourth Street entrance to the Arcade, then finally outside Rikes at (I think) Second and Main. The old man was also once a boxing promoter and ring announcer, among other things. Unfortunately, he was murdered while being robbed in 1981 or 1987 - it's difficult to make out the last number of the year on my source. P.S. I just found a story and pictures of Horvath here http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/oh/story/opinions/columns/2009/03/09/ddn030909dale.html Last Edited by on Sep 20, 2009 7:30 PM
RIVERDALE RAT 345 posts Sep 21, 2009 7:26 AM	Curt, thanks for the photo/story link. these photos were taken in 1977. I was far removed from the streets of Dayton by 1977. the only thing that I recognize in those photos is the newsstand itself. The building behind it with the Mead sign over the door, is a new structure to me. there used to be a large older building in that place (it once housed the drugstore that dquartz has been asking about in another post) across the alley (going West) was a bar called the Stage Door, next to that was the large brick structure that housed the Miami Jacobs Business College. it looks like a bit farther down there is a Elder Beerman's, it is now sitting where there was a parking lot which was used by tenants/customers of the Hullman Building. the Mead corporation used to have their main operations in the Talbot Tower and their name was at the top of the building for many years. I do remember Joe Horvath from around town but I never knew him personally. Joe was a fixture in Downtown Dayton for many years but was not the owner or even an employee of that Newsstand during my era. I am amazed that the stand was ever sold/leased to an individual. there was two of the longtime employees of the stand that practically begged to buy it and could not. I have an e-mail out to Dale Huffman attempting to find out when the stand was taken over by Horvath. I would also be interested in knowing where and when he met his Death. Mr Horvath's death is a tragedy and a loss to the community in any sense, it would be especially tragic if he lost his life there at the Newsstand. that used to be such a peaceful, happy corner. I will keep you guys posted on any additional information that I am able to scrounge up.
dquartz 223 posts Sep 22, 2009 10:49 PM	the newsstand looks exactly as i last remember it except for the joe's news stand sign, i dont remember that being there. i also dont remember the buildings behind it. riverdale... you never did get around to answering my question, iam curious about the location of the western union office that you mentioned in your previous post. was it in the alley ?....thanks.

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