I stopped in at Union Bank on 48th and Calvert this morning to deposit some checks. While I was getting my things in order I overheard a teller instructing a customer on where to go to get ... well, whatever it was he was after. The teller told the man "It's in the old Post Office on Calvert".
Immediately I perked up. Although I instantly knew the building, only longtime Lincolnites would have a chance at knowing where the teller was talking about. That building hadn't been a Post Office in ... what, 25 years? I looked up at the teller. He probably wasn't even born when it was a Post Office! After the customer went on his way -- with a Union Bank employee helpfully at his side to get him to the right place -- I asked the teller how a young pup like him could possibly remember that Post Office. He didn't. But all the old-timers in the bank refer to the building that way, so he picked up on it.
There are many landmarks like that throughout Lincoln. Kool Krest and Miller & Paine are two noteworthy ones that I use often. I love that there's enough consistency in Lincoln that we can have those collective memories. And I get a kick out of the fact that even people who weren't even around at the time -- The Missus, to name one -- use those long-gone landmarks as references.
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I’ll always refer to the shopping center at 60th and O as “Gateway.” It is much easier to say than “Westfield Shopping Center.”
The Atrium will always be a shopping mall. Someone referred to it by it’s “new” name recently and I’m like um… no, that the Atrium.
Lincoln General I think will always be Lincoln General.
And I agree on Gateway.
Before it was the Atrium, that building housed the Sears Roebuck store.
I’m old:
When I started at UNL, the JC Penney store was still downtown, on O Street, across the street to the east of (then NBC) Wells Fargo.
The Centrum and Atrium were both pretty full of stores (Waldenbooks, GNC, Thingsville to name a few) and each had a full food court.
Gateway had a tiny food court, and all the area around it was outdoors. There was still a Kresge store there. The JC Penney wing hadn’t been built. There was a burger place (?) - maybe Flaky Jakes? - where Olive Garden now stands. Sears looked pretty much exactly as it does today.
27th and Old Cheney was the far southern edge of town. The building that was just demolished to make room for CVS was there, but there was only one lane of traffic in each direction, and not even a stop light - just stop signs.
There were still 3 drive-in movie screens standing, although one had closed, but two were still playing movies.
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