OLD FASHIONED DAYS

This is a big week coming up as we have a major election being held in our community. Make your voting experience this Tuesday, November 4 a happy one by exercising your right as a U.S. citizen. In early days each political party would list their candidates on a small piece of paper which you could take into the polling booth in order to remember. These resembled the event tickets of their day in size and shape, and hence it evolved into the term “political ticket.” I illustrated a couple of local ones from the 1870s in this column several years ago. Anyway, please vote this Tuesday. Your vote is just as important as anyone elses.

One promotional theme Albion merchants used to feature in downtown Albion years ago was “Old Fashioned Days.” Employees would dress up in old costumes (usually Victorian), and there would be various sales in each of the stores that related to that theme. These were the pre-mall days, when downtown Albion was lined with merchants and people shopped downtown on a regular basis.

From our Historical Notebook this week is pictured a gathering at the Rainbow Dairy Bar for the 1959 Old Fashioned Days breakfast. Various downtown merchants and employees are dressed up in their colorful costumes before their stores opened that day. Several of the ladies in this photo worked at J.C. Penney’s or the “dime stores.”

Front row, left to right: Margaret Bunn, Phyllis Rutz, Eva Osburn, Florence Wilkinson, and Mary Inman. Second row: Evelyn Hopkins, Minnie Watts, Marilyn Mosher, Fannie Steinkrauss, Bertha Nass, Eva Keller, and Barbara Warrick.

Top row: Ralph Seelye, Clarence Franklin, George Rutz, Dorothy Toby, Thelma Andreas, Mildred Watts, and Lois Norton. How many of our readers remember “Old Fashioned Days?”

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
	Michigan Prints by Maggie LaNoue Michigan Prints offers limited-edition archival Giclée prints, miniprints, notecards and boxed sets featuring Michigan landmarks, nature, resorts and nostalgia. Each print and card includes a legend on the back with stories about Michigan history. Albion scenes include the Kalamazoo River waterfall and the Blizzard of 1978. Find Michigan Prints online and at local shops. Michigan Prints \| Albion Scenes \| Custom Cards \| Zazzle Gifts
	AlbionMich.net — General Guide to Albion AlbionMich.net is a hub for community life in the greater Albion area, featuring current news, city council updates, river restoration stories, parks and trails. See Albion's beautiful Kalamazoo River waterfall as it looks today — and follow the story of its future restoration. Includes news from The Recorder and stories about Albion's 17 parks. AlbionMich.net \| Albion Blog \| Frank Passic on AlbionMich.net
	General Guide to Albion AlbionMich.net offers two General Guides to the Albion area — one covering community life including city council, veterans, history, youth and wellness resources, and one covering the outdoors including roads, rivers, parks, trails and downtown. Both guides feature stories by local writers including contributors to The Recorder, sorted by topic for easy reference. General Guide — Community \| General Guide — Outdoors
	Robin James — Indices Unlimited Robin James is the editor of the Albion Historical Notebook and has kept Frank Passic's thousands of articles organized and searchable for decades. A trained librarian and archivist, Robin specializes in back-of-book and online indexing, multimedia collection management, and corporate information distribution. He also enjoys strange music and is a contributing editor for Igloo electronic music magazine. For more about his indexing services, visit Indices Unlimited.
AlbionDesign.com — Communications Specialists Since 1981 \| Advertise on AlbionMich.com