Part 2 - Levittown's Mays shopping center was a focal point for our community way back when

That's Marilyn curtseying at a dance in front of Mays in 1959.

Mays under construction in the early 1950s. The Peter Pan Bakery, Times Square Stores and Pergament can be seen.

Click on photos to enlarge

By MARILYN MONSRUD FRESE

I got my first job at Mays in my junior year (1962). I believe the pay was less than a dollar an hour. This little shopping center was my whole shopping world. Everything we could possible want you could find somewhere in this little strip of stores. And Henshaw's Furniture a block east of here.

Once in a while my mom would take me to Hempstead and the A&S there. It was like going to NYC to shop. As I got a little older, we would take the bus to Hempstead. We felt like world travelers. I bought all my records at Mays and Time Square Stores (see photo).

Life was so simple then. If we couldn't find it here, we didn't need it!

Part 1 - Levittown's Mays shopping center was a focal point for our community way back when

Click on photos to enlarge

By FRANK BARNING

Early Levittown did not have a real downtown. It was pure suburban sprawl and as great as Levitt and Sons' planning had been, one item that was omitted was a shopping area such as were found at the time in previously developed communities such as Hempstead and even nearby Hicksville.

We pioneers made the shopping center anchored by the Mays department store our downtown. Some of us lived nearby and had an easy walk, while others were not so fortunate. For many, distance was compensated for by heading to "the stores" after school at Division Avenue junior and senior high schools. The shopping center was 10 minutes at most from school. The kids who attended Levittown Memorial High School were less fortunate.

The variety of stores was impressive, at least to us, and I rarely heard complaints. The merchants in the 1950s, for example, were fairly tolerant when it come to allowing us to hang around. There wasn't much of a police or security presence. Ours was not a particularly threatening crowd.

Among the things remembered by some of my Facebook friends about our shopping center was buying scout uniforms at Lobel's and later JC Penney, the lunch counter at Woolworth's, shoes at Thom McAn, Whalen's drug store, first jobs, buying 45 records and a bakery that in some memories has never been topped . . . Peter Pan.

I have asked frequent blog contributor Toni Crescenzo Gelfer, class of 1968, to provide her memories.

By TONI CRESCENZO GELFER

The shopping center on Hempstead Turnpike that included Mays has left many indelible marks in my memory. These thoughts can be pulled from every stage of my life, from being a very young child until when I first became a mother. My earliest recollections are the sweetest.

My mother never learned to drive and was an avid walker till her mid 80's. Although she and I did take the bus to the stores in Hicksville and Hempstead, the strolls through Levittown to arrive at that strip of stores on Hempstead Turnpike was an adventure for a four year old.

With my older siblings in school, I had my mom all to myself. At the stores we'd peruse an amazing array of items, resting here and there, if I tired. There was always a stop to eat and regroup with bags in hand. Going home I'd usually end up with a small toy from Woolworth's and a large lollipop. Sometimes it would start to rain or mom would get an extraordinary sale on bananas and we'd have to take a taxi cab.

These were the best of times, the cavernous back seat, parcels crinkling and little me perched on a small round disc like seat which magically appeared out of the floor. And always there was mom talking and smiling all the way home. This was heaven.

Mays Department Store on Hempstead Turnpike was an important element of our teenage years

We shopped at Mays, a few of us worked there and it even served as a popular hangout. It was a short walk from Division Avenue High School, a focal-point during our teenage years. Oh yes, some of us even shop lifted at Mays, or so I have been told.

Marilyn Monsrud Frese, class of 1963, had these memories:

Ah, I remember this well. Square dancing behind Mays Department Store on Saturday nights. That's me in the front (see top photo), doing such a lovely curtsey. I see Bonnie Green in the dark v-neck sweater on the left, then Corrine Norgren next to her, then Darryl Dittko in dark Bermuda shorts and white top to the right of Corrine. This photo was from the local newspaper and is shown in the Levittown Museum collection.

Your blogger found this anonymous post from 2006 online:

"I grew up in Levittown and for years Mays was the main store for back-to-school clothes and buying records. It was the anchor for the once thriving Levittown Shopping Center. When TV commercials started airing around the mid 1970s, the joke was "What Mays looks like that?" The Levittown store was always a mess and very dreary. The chain shut down in 1989. The Levittown store has been a Tri-County Flea market for years. When you walk into the building, the MAYS name is still on the floor and door handles."