Remember Kline's?

Kline's Department Store, December 1969

Kline's Department Store.

The very mention of its name evokes memories of a Lorain of a different age, a time before the coming of Midway Mall, when people shopped Downtown for almost everything they needed.

I never realized that Kline's was part of a national chain; I always thought it was entirely a local store. But with the many longtime employees, as well as the personalized service that every shopper received, it might as well have been a family-owned store.

I'm sure every Lorainite over 50 remembers Kline's, or has some fond memory of the store.

Kline's meant a lot to my family. Grandma Brady was a sales clerk there for thirty years, and was a good friend of the manager – Ben Weintraub – and his wife. Grandma's best friend – Mrs. Kennington – also worked there as a sales clerk.

My parents both had a Kline's connection as well. Dad worked there in his teens as a stockman, and Mom worked there while she was in high school.

Of course, Mom shopped there too. Kline's was one of the stops during the weekly excursions to Downtown Lorain for our trumpet lessons in the 1960s. I remember that while shopping there, we would go downstairs, and say hello to some of Grandma Brady's old work friends.

Anyway, please stop back here next time as I begin a series on the history of Kline's in Lorain.