December 3, 2022

Many Happy Returns

The last Wieboldt’s department store closed in 1987.

It had been in business with several locations throughout the Chicago area since 1883 and Homer Catpole worked there, at the location at Harlem and Lake in west suburban River Forest, for each one of them.

He began working at Wieboldt’s when he was six, after his mother forgot him on the corner and someone asked him to carry their bags to their horse for a penny and a tomato sandwich and Homer agreed and worked there ever since.

He went from errand boy, to stockroom boy, to sales clerk, to mannequin, all before the year 1902.

Then, from 1903 to 1986, Homer was the official Wieboldt’s spokesman. He would stand on the corner, night and day, and say “Shop at Wieboldt’s! For Chrissakes, shop at Wieboldt’s!”

It worked for about eighty years then, at Christmas 1986, Homer, at age 109, got a mannequin pregnant. Again.

He was fired and Wieboldt’s declared bankruptcy in 1987.

Homer died in 1988. And is now burning in hell.

Shop at Wieboldt’s, for Chrissake. Shop at Wieboldt’s. --TK