Shops

[Duelist]

We talk a lot about rides and/or shows we'd like to see built or brought back but how about shops?  For one I miss the book store.  I'd spend a lot of time there each trip and almost all of the souveniers I have from SDC are books.  Someone mentioned in another thread they'd like to see a full service western clothing store.  There used to be some "period" style clothing at the old Butterfield Stage Supply before it moved up to Main Street and became Cowboy Jepp's.  When the SDC Facebook page showed some photos of their costuming shop (for their employees) someone said they would like to see the "period" clothing the characters wear offered to the public.  There are a lot of good places on the web to buy frontier clothes but it would be nice to have somewhere you could try the clothes on before you buy them.  Thoughts?

[Junior]

Two things stand out in my mind. The bookstore and the General Store. I really wish they would have kept the bookstore and stocked more Ozark titles. I wish the General Store was in the form it was 25 years ago. Those are the two I miss the most...plus several of the craft stores...stained glass, and so on.

[Duelist]

Yes, it would be nice to see the General Store back the way it was.

[StaceySue]

I, too, miss the bookstore.  I had started purchasing these little pamphlet-like books that related to Laura Ingalls Wilder.  For example, one was Eliza Jane's story and another was about when the Ingalls lived at Burr Oaks.  The were a nice supplement to the Little House books and a biography I have.  One visit, they were gone.  I hadn't bought all of the books yet.  Then the store moved.  Then it was gone.  I always checked for those books, and now I can't even check.   

[betamike]

Yeah, I was kind of shocked to see that the bookstore had been removed entirely upon this last visit.  I knew the end was near when it was relegated to the small store next to the railroad tracks.  Seems like little bookstores in the Ozarks have a tough time of it (Shepherd's book store, etc...) LOL

[Ozark Outlaw]

Unfortunately with online stores such as Amazon, and eBay, the humble old fashioned book store just isn’t in as high of demand as it used to be. Not to mention with digital book devices should as the Nook, people can access thousands of digital books at the push of a button.

Like it, or hate it, Silver Dollar City is no exception to this trend, and the bookstore had to go.

[Junior]

Those little books that are bios of the "little house" characters Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about are available at the Wilder home at Mansfield, MO, and the Ozarks Mountaineer Bookstore at Kirbyville, between Branson and Forsyth used to stock them, too. If you never have had a chance to visit the Wilder house at Mansfield it is worth a trip. Good museum, and pretty neat to see the humble house where Laura...and some say her daughter Rose...wrote those classic books.
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In general you really have to search hard to find many books about the ozarks in Branson anymore. I found some paperbacks on a rack in the General Store and in the Ozark Marketplace when I was at SDC last week. Most of the Branson gift shops used to carry a lot of regional titles, but not anymore. I visited the Dickens Gift Shop at Branson and Dicks 5 & 10 while visiting town last week, and they had about the same ten titles that SDC had.  Foozles at Branson Meadows used to carry some local titles, but when I swung through that shopping center last week, Foozles had closed down. Tanger Mall once had a bookstore, but not anymore. Shepherd of the Hills has some titles, so does Bonniebrook, but you'll be hard pressed to find Ozarks books at very many more locations.

[betamike]

This may be a bit off subject (but on target with the current round of discussion), but I was just at the War Eagle Mill near Rogers, Arkansas and found a few of the old Ozarkian books sold there.  In particular there is a title that i cannot put down called "Bodacious Ozarks, The: True Tales of the Backhills"...great stuff!

[StaceySue]

Those little books that are bios of the "little house" characters Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about are available at the Wilder home at Mansfield, MO, and the Ozarks Mountaineer Bookstore at Kirbyville, between Branson and Forsyth used to stock them, too. If you never have had a chance to visit the Wilder house at Mansfield it is worth a trip. Good museum, and pretty neat to see the humble house where Laura...and some say her daughter Rose...wrote those classic books.

Thanks for the info!  It makes sense that the books would be at the Wilder home.  That is one of those trips that my husband and I keep saying we need to make, but we just haven't made it yet.  Actually, I stopped by there on the way home from a family trip when I was 16, but they happened to be closed the day we were passing through.

[rubedugans]

I miss interactive demonstrations at the stores during the kids fest. It wasn't called that 25 years ago, but here is how it went. Instead of Spongebob, and the similar modern "pop" image additions to the summer months, Kids could take part in the crafts. As a child I threw 2 pots on a pottery wheel on the porch of the Hillside Pottery shop (with assistance cenering the clay from the potter himself), made a butter churn out of barrel staves and hoops (which we were told would be sold the net day...later I found out that they were quickly dismantled for the next kid to put together), my sister StlPhotogal spun a jump rope, we pressed (minted) coins, tooled leather cuffs/ bracelets and keychains. There were no beanie babies or battery powered toys, we would buy marbles, or dolls (in Stl's case-not mine). Buy cap guns and pop/ cork guns, and enjoy every minute of it. We didn't need to bring in Smurfs or Sesame Street or any characters to make our trip worthwhile.

The attractions I miss are the Gandy Dancer, the rope maze/ , the treehouse, Rube's diving bell, Walking behind the waterfall to the land of forgotten crafts (I guess those have been forgotten again huh?). Cabin/ R/R tie making was always a favorite of mine to watch.
I miss my childhood SDC as you can tell!

HOWEVER...I can come to the park and still...
hear the ping of the hammer on the anvil, become disoriented in the Grandfather's mansion, see a fire thats been burning a town for almost 40 years , see prisoners that haven't stopped a leak in 42 years, I could go on and on.

[pintrader]

HOWEVER...I can come to the park and still...
hear the ping of the hammer on the anvil, become disoriented in the Grandfather's mansion, see a fire thats been burning a town for almost 40 years , see prisoners that haven't stopped a leak in 42 years, I could go on and on

Wow!  This city sounds like it is in bad shape .

[rubedugans]

Maybe if they sent the prisoners from the Flood Mine over to The Fire in the Hole, they could get the job done!

[Duelist]

Great post, Rube!  I'd forgotten how great pre- Kid's Fest was.  I also miss the cabin/RR tie making as well as the wagon making.

[Junior]

BetaMike...War Eagle Mill does carry some nice titles, and I'm glad you picked up Bodacious Ozarks...I've got that one, too. The guy who wrote it used to live in Fayetteville. I'm sure he's gone on to his great reward now.

Rube, I appreciate your post, too. Nice thoughts and memories there.