So, you were the one....I've looking for you for years....you still have a mess to clean up...Ha-ha, yep... Sometimes it would take an hour to clean up the mess from two minutes of fun.

I worked for TG&Y From 1968 until Feb 1985. My last position was General Manager of a 60,000 foot Family Center "the largest location in the New Orleans Area" I managed several New Orleans Stores over those years. It was a Good company to work with and My employees were very loyal to the Company. They felt that the store they worked at was "Their Personal Store." They trearted their customers as freinds and family and when someone came into the store it was like they were invited to their homes. Too bad todays big box retailers cannot duplicate the customer service that TG&Y had. :

AHHHHH...now the Holidays begin. I remember in the days of the variety stores only there was always a display window in each store....The judges would be one of the upper management (Not store managers) and whoever got the prize would receive one day's pay. I always volunteered to do the window.
there would be some pretty good windows. I won a couple of times. Let's see 85cents an hour times an 8 hour day ....$ 6.80 prize money....a full tank of gas
(4.35) and enough for a coke and a hamburger......things and prices have changed a little since then ....right???

I worked at TG&Y from 1982-1984. Made my way all the way up to assistant floor manager. Used to catch shop lifters. One guy stole five VTRs. Put them all in a shopping cart and walked right out the door.

During deer season, we had to move workers from fabric to sports just to fill out deer tags. This was at the Del City store, store 1001, 1401 Howard Drive. I used to work a full shift, which was open to close, take an hour for lunch and drive around town, like I owned the strip. It was fun until I figured out I was only making $4.50 an hour...

I quit that job to work at Sound Warehouse!

Gerald, at which Sound Warehouse did you work? I started at #1 (101) in 1989, then moved around to all the rest over a number of years.

Also, no one mentioned one of our regular TG&Y stores. There was one at 36th and Western, right in the middle of where Bruno's is now. I would go over there when my mom or grandma was grocery shopping at the Humpty Dumpty store next door. We hit the Shepherd Mall store pretty often also.

I also worked at the big TG&Y on 74th & Penn, not long after the sirloin stockade murders. I remember people busting their butts on that hill in the store all the time!

Gerald, at which Sound Warehouse did you work? I started at #1 (101) in 1989, then moved around to all the rest over a number of years.

Also, no one mentioned one of our regular TG&Y stores. There was one at 36th and Western, right in the middle of where Bruno's is now. I would go over there when my mom or grandma was grocery shopping at the Humpty Dumpty store next door. We hit the Shepherd Mall store pretty often also.
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Hey guy, that store at 35th/N.Western was one great training store. The volume and the size was one that quite a few good store managers came out of. I have a friend that when they closed the store down, he kept the BRASS T.G.&Y. sign. I have tried numerous times to buy it from him but, all I get is a "Yeah right".....That my friend was a trued TG&Y Variety Store. Still don't know why they changed the format....They were so successful.

A question about their favorite TG&Y was raised not too long ago....


WHERE WAS YOUR FAVORITE T G & Y AND WHY????

59th and S. Penn because my friends and I would sit on the magazine rack and read comic books for hours. Every month we would read every comic book on the rack. This went on for two or three years. The store manager only said something to us a couple times about buying the comics.

59th and S. Penn because my friends and I would sit on the magazine rack and read comic books for hours. Every month we would read every comic book on the rack. This went on for two or three years. The store manager only said something to us a couple times about buying the comics.
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That was Me bubba....You owe me big bucks for reading the magazines free. Did you guys have a good turkey day?

I always went to the one at Britton and N. May. Unfortunately my mom would drag me to the C.R. Anthony's next door for clothes shopping. It was a give and take relationship.

All these bring back memories. My father worked for TG&Y for 33 yrs. He first was assigned to Guymon. After that he was in Fairview, Cherokee, Alva then back to Guymon. We later lived for a short time in Wichita KS then 10 yrs in Watonga. In 1968, he was transferred to OKC, where he worked in Warr Acres (where I now live). He worked at #1001 in Del City at 15th and Vickie.

I remember working holidays at #1001 sacking merchandise during Christmas. The manager of the Squire shoppe is now a State Rep.. Al Lindley. As a newlywed, I worked in the Deville store in Bethany for Mr. Doyle. Lot of great people worked for TG&Y. Some of them are like family. Several stay in touch with my parents and myself.

TG&Y stood for Thompson Gosselin and Young. I met Mr. R.A. Young in the mid 1960's at the grand re-opening of the Watonga store #14. That was one of his original stores.
Very nice man. I found out that day he was friends with my grandfather at Okla A&M and knew my grandmother back then too.

Anthony's,....Send your sister
Humpty Dumpty:.....Mom could buy groceries
TG&Y........The young guys kept them all in order.......Models, Cars, Records,Model planes/Paint, plastic Army and Cowboy & Indian men.....We kept everything going right?.........Right?????

How about the toys that were available that we wish now we had saved?..For instance the plastic army men...1959 Barbie Dolls, Chatty Cathy, that old Radio Flyer Wagon or a Fanner 50? I found a Fanner 50 on the ground not long ago...still have it to.

One of my favorite toys bought at TG&Y was a Holland bike. It had 2 parts and was connected on a center bar by a knob. It was a perfect bike to put in our popup trailer that we took to Colorado each summer. Another favorite in our family was the TG&Y semitrailer truck. My brother had one as a child. A few years ago, I found one on ebay and gave it to my brother for Christmas. My dad was always taking pictures at the store. I will see if I can't get some of them scanned after getting them from my mother.

I worked at TG&Y from 1982-1984. Made my way all the way up to assistant floor manager. Used to catch shop lifters. One guy stole five VTRs. Put them all in a shopping cart and walked right out the door.

During deer season, we had to move workers from fabric to sports just to fill out deer tags. This was at the Del City store, store 1001, 1401 Howard Drive. I used to work a full shift, which was open to close, take an hour for lunch and drive around town, like I owned the strip. It was fun until I figured out I was only making $4.50 an hour...

I quit that job to work at Sound Warehouse!

My dad worked at the #1001 store. I will always remember that store number. That was our house number at Watonga growing up. Lot of nice people worked there. Was Mr. Pierce still the manager? I worked a few holidays sacking merchandise for customers.

A question about their favorite TG&Y was raised not too long ago....


WHERE WAS YOUR FAVORITE T G & Y AND WHY????

Watonga Store# 14- Probably because my dad was the manager there for 10 yrs and that is where I lived the first 10 yrs of my life. The employees in that store were like family. Some of them I'm still in touch with even 40 yrs after we've moved. Some of them even moved to OKC and worked in TG&Y stores here too. It also is a store that was expanded and Mr. R.A. Young came to the grand reopening. Mr. Young had me pulled out of school to cut the ribbon with him. I will never forget that day.

Here's one for you to remember...how about the chocolate covered cherries that TG&Y carried during Christmas....Life Saver candies in the little book....
How many of you remember getting your Grandmother or Aunt a Hankie for Christmas....from TG&Y?
I remember one time the store manager at the big store on S. Penn was a little bit disturbed with me and a couple of others.....He came up to us and told us to unload the Chocolate Cherries in the front of the store.......No big deal....we can handle it......3 tractor trailer trucks later we were finished....I went to Mr. Price and apologized for what ever I had done to upset his day. Didn't want to unload that many chocolate covered cherries again. To this day I almost run when I see a box of those things......However, we sold every single case before Christmas....

I like those chocolate covered cherries. I wish I could still eat them, but I can't have the sugar now.

Does anyone out there remember the name of the perfume TG&Y carried during their days as strictly Variety Stores????

You guys must be mere children> Blue Waltz was the perfume. I remember in Jr. High putting this horrible smelling perfume in water guns and squirting people with the smell in the back. They could never figure out where the odor came from.......I think the stuff cost $2.00 a gallon or something...Mischievious-minded children will play......How about making "stink bombs" at Grant with ball point pens and Kitchen matches...really smelled bad...got caught...really hurt too...

How about making "stink bombs" at Grant with ball point pens and Kitchen matches...really smelled bad...got caught...really hurt too...Taught my brother how to make those and he set one off in a trash can during class and blamed it on me. I got in a lot of trouble for that.

Taught my brother how to make those and he set one off in a trash can during class and blamed it on me. I got in a lot of trouble for that.

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Frisky:....one question:....were you the guys that set my trash bin on fire at 59th and Penn??????

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Frisky:....one question:....were you the guys that set my trash bin on fire at 59th and Penn??????No, we did not set it on fire, nor do I know who set it on fire. At the time, we had just assumed the store had decided to start burning the trash themselves. Of course that was a wrong assumption, but we were young and didn’t know any better.

I remember when it burned. We hadn’t gone thru it in a while, but were still a bit upset because it was a nasty mess and we could no longer rummage thru the boxes looking for buried treasure. I will add that at the time it burned (the first time) we were at a stage in our lives where we had discovered girls and they were much more fascinating than dumpster diving.

That does bring back some memories of “treasure” we found in there. A couple times there were battery powered ‘rocking wire’ devices used on the display signs and one of my buddies found a broken, “gold”, heart shaped locket and necklace. I also found a busted watch once (Timex?). We never found anything of value that I can recall, but the fun part for us kids was “digging for treasure”.

Sometimes we would bring back things we didn’t want to bring back, like a sticky, gooey, mess on our clothes from those broken and crushed boxes of thrown away Queen Ann chocolate covered cherries.

You know, you are probably the guys that kept everything in a mess on the back of the store at 59/Penn. Fess up you're the guys aren't you...you owe me a Coke this coming Saturday.......Why would you or anyone want those nasty Chocolate Covered Cherries?????

There aren't many families in the OKC area that at least someone in the family worked for TG&Y at one time or the other. Shen you see them during the Holidays...see if they have any stories to share on this thread.....

SAw something today, thought about old memories and this thread....while going down 26th st (S.W.) between Harvey and Robinson I looked back to the north and lo and behold there is still a TG&Y sign painted and infamy I guess. Now, that was a variety store deluxe ....most any Southsider would remember that old store....

Just think, you could go into the TG&Y Store right now...find what you wanted or needed for Christmas...get checked out and be done and go look at the Christmas lights by now.....

Well, if you're reading this thread I have a question for you? Do you the Tape that you're going to need for wrapping presents?....How about a good selection of Christmas candy for the Stockings? Wrapping paper? are you going to use last year's paper or look for some new....These were questions we would ask our employees to make sure they had everything ready for the late shoppers....Remember to get EVERYTHING out of the Stokroom that would sell and check in your Understocks so our customers don't have to go somewhere else....Santa is on the way....

O.K., this time of the year TG&Y would be putting out all the Spray snow they could find and all the tape and Wrapping paper. Everyone in town was in a frenzy to liquidate what ever extra inventory they might have. I remember when the Cabbage Patch doll craze hit I had kept 144 of them in the back until the last moment. We put them out and limited one per customer. I had written a back up order and from no where we received 288 more of them...No one in OKC had the dolls but us. Lots of games and trading went on over those dolls. never marked them of the going price. But, you had a lot of promises made. What a year......

Remember the snacktime kids?
One line of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, the Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Kids, was designed to "eat" plastic snacks. The mechanism enabling this was a pair of one-way metal rollers behind a plastic slot and rubber lips, and the plastic snacks would exit the doll's back into a backpack. The dolls didn't have an on-off switch and the mechanism was activated by putting the plastic snacks, or potentially other objects, between the lips and into the slot. The dolls were popular in Christmas 1996 and voluntarily withdrawn from the market by agreement between Mattel and the Consumer Product Safety Commission in January 1997 after several incidents where children got their fingers or hair stuck in the doll's mouth and safety warnings from Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner were issued. Customers could get their money back if they returned them to the stores.
My Granddaughter got one for Christmas, but instead of returning it, we box it up in the original box and put it away. We still have it and my granddaughter is 18 years old today with all her fingers and hair still attached.

Remember those and remember the yelling that people did when they brought them back.

My dad got my sister a CPK at the Windsor Hills location, he had won a lottery at the store for the right to buy one.

My dad got my sister a CPK at the Windsor Hills location, he had won a lottery at the store for the right to buy one.
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It brings back some deep memories when you mentioned the Windsor Hills Store. We were are the Deville store (3 miles west) and had all the CPK dolls. The store manager was livid about our store having so many of the dolls he startd complaining...we gave him six ((6) of the dolls so he would shut up. Your sister got one of the dolls in my store....

The DeVille store, I frequented that store often as my girlfriend during part of my senior year of high school (81-82) worked at that store.

The DeVille store, I frequented that store often as my girlfriend during part of my senior year of high school (81-82) worked at that store.

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I was there.....

Well, Christmas is about here...Hope you all have a good one and stay with us.

Ho-Ho-Ho........No Redskin/Generals...that is NOT what you think it means....

O.K. tomorrow begins preparation for Inventory...Oh yeah, TG&Y is no more. Memories are great times from before you really had to worry. hated to do Inventory though.......

I remember the one on I-240 and Pen being the worlds largest T.G&Y you could walk through there for hours and not see everything it was a great place to do last minute Christmas shopping it was sad seeing close I remember slowing removing shelves until they got to just a few isle and everything else tapped off but they where some great deals.

I remember the one on I-240 and Pen being the worlds largest T.G&Y you could walk through there for hours and not see everything it was a great place to do last minute Christmas shopping it was sad seeing close I remember slowing removing shelves until they got to just a few isle and everything else tapped off but they where some great deals.
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On June 4th, 1964, freshly graduated from Grant Highschool and already a true TG&Y GUY (Airline Shopping Center), I picked up a pushbroom and began sweeping.....I swept the entire original store at 74th and Penn, store 411 before they began setting fixtures.
Next day, merchandise began to arrive and a legend was truly born. However, on June 4th, 1966 I married my best friend (highschool sweetheart) and we're stlll together (42 years) and TG&Y is a memory. Agreat one though but still a memory....Thanks Mr. Young....Mr. Price

If you are reading this thread and you worked for TG&Y previously...Tell us where you worked and what years....Never know who you might run into...

I remember going to TG&Y near downtown with my grandmother, it was where Linwood and Western intersect, I think there's a bank there now.
In my teen years, I went to the one on Shepard Mall.

I remember going to TG&Y near downtown with my grandmother, it was where Linwood and Western intersect, I think there's a bank there now.
In my teen years, I went to the one on Shepard Mall.
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That store was called the 6th & Western Store...Still had water coolers and fans when they closed and demolished the building for the bank's parking lot. I have pictures but don't know how to put them on the web site...

How many of you GUYS remember entering the TG&Y model Car Contest? Did anyone ever really win? I worked for them and never had anyone ever pick up their models or their trophies....

I worked in Store #410 in Edmond at 15th and Broadway in 1973 and early 1974.
Our store was the second largest in the chain. The one on SW74th was largest.
My department had records, books, magazines, cameras and film and film processing.
They opened a new store at 2nd and Bryant during that time. There was also a small store on N. Littler and about 2nd.

I worked in Store #410 in Edmond at 15th and Broadway in 1973 and early 1974.
Our store was the second largest in the chain. The one on SW74th was largest.
My department had records, books, magazines, cameras and film and film processing.
They opened a new store at 2nd and Bryant during that time. There was also a small store on N. Littler and about 2nd.
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I helped set up the Sporting Goods in that store around 1965...I worked at the 74th st. Store and just about every other one in the state. I ended up in the Buying Department in OKC...Miss that chain...and I think everyone else does...

We also had a Humpty Dumpty Grocery store connected to our store.

We also had a Humpty Dumpty Grocery store connected to our store.
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That was quite an agreement with most of the landlords (Henderson Properties and Goldman) to get Humpty and TG&Y together. When allied foods began to falter Fleming stepped in and most of the stores in the OKC area became independent stores like Crest Foods....

At a meeting today (Southside Memories) TG&Y became a large topic. A bunch of older folks remember things that happened in their youth. Funny how the guys admitted (Now) about stealing model cars, eating candy off the penny candy aisle. Stealing a Dart? Bet that was hard to conceal. However, it brought back memories of the old TG&Y toy Aisle....Darts, Yo-yo's, Tops, marbles, Model cars (1.25 each) Slinky, Gyroscopes, Barbie and Ken dolls. How many out there remember the Erector sets?...Tinker toys....Lincoln logs,.....Fort Apache "featuring Rin-Tin-Tin". some day let your hair down and remember what it was like to be a kid and browse through a TG&Y stores....Wal-Mart doesn't have the toys we played with as kids now....

While I may be a greenhorn southsider compared to some you. Some of my favorite memories are shopping for Hotwheels with my Grandpa the SW 44th & High and the 12th & I-35 store in Moore that had entrances at the back and front of store. He would take his truck in for an oil change or tires while we waited we browsed the aisles.

My favorite store was the SW 74th and Penn store where my parents would shop. I remember when the shopping center with Tan & Tone was the automotive center and the garden center was back behind Wendy's. Mom would go to the garden center to buy plants every year.

That area at 74th and Kentucky has changed many times over the years. I remember when OG&E had an office in that strip center that ran from the Curtis Mathes store around the fence line to Ketucky.

I remember those stores well. I worked for T.G.&Y. (Central Repair) in the late 70's.

how about the fishing contest put on by tg&y , pee wee division junior division, senior division, and they gave away fishing poles for biggest bass biggest crappie and biggest catfish.

how about the fishing contest put on by tg&y , pee wee division junior division, senior division, and they gave away fishing poles for biggest bass biggest crappie and biggest catfish.

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You make me really feel old now. I was the one that put that contest on for TG&Y....My Gosh, that was a long time ago....Did you win anything ?

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You make me really feel old now. I was the one that put that contest on for TG&Y....My Gosh, that was a long time ago....Did you win anything ?

No i was beat out by some punk kid...grrrrr

The fishing contest doesn't ring any bells, but I do remember buying a ton of fad "collectables" like Rat Fink, Monster models, Baseball Cards and Styrofoam gliders that have long since disappeared, but are probably worth a fortune now.

The fishing contest doesn't ring any bells, but I do remember buying a ton of fad "collectables" like Rat Fink, Monster models, Baseball Cards and Styrofoam gliders that have long since disappeared, but are probably worth a fortune now.
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Wouldn't have thought of the styrofoam gliders in a million years. Remember the gliders that had a rubber band and a propeller...Wind it up and watch it fly....then break.....Lots of tape and glue. I was thinking this morning about TG&Y and how we use to call it the dime store....then the family center...Now, all the variety type stores are called "Dollar" stores the cycle of economic change even hits the little variety stores....From a Dime to a dollar store...

What was the stuff called that was like chewing gum (although you didn't put it in your mouth) that was used to make blowup bubbles? It came in a tube with a plastic straw that you put the plastic "gum" on. After you blew up a bubble it would become semi-solid.

I know this is a little off the subject but OTASCO had the FLYING "O" bikes, and remember when tg&y carrier the 30/30 rifles and ammo and so did OTASCO

What was the stuff called that was like chewing gum (although you didn't put it in your mouth) that was used to make blowup bubbles? It came in a tube with a plastic straw that you put the plastic "gum" on. After you blew up a bubble it would become semi-solid.

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Yeah and if you accidentally left on the bed and your dog started chewing in you got to clean up all kinds of Foul smelling dog poop. Plus, your mom got real mad at you for ruining the sheets....Had to stay away from that stuff.

I know this is a little off the subject but OTASCO had the FLYING "O" bikes, and remember when tg&y carrier the 30/30 rifles and ammo and so did OTASCO
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Remember very well, we bought the 30/30 Marlins through OKL. Hardware. then, they and Miller/Jackson Co. began trying to carry every type of gun they could get. Sold many of them. I think Otasco carried a name of Western Field rifles and Mossberg Shotguns...... Sears had the Ted Williams Brand. One of our largest competitiors in the OKC market was the Gibson's store on N.W. 6th street. Glen Jones was the Sporting Goods Guru down there and he was "Good" at his job.....

OK trivia question...whatwere the color tvs made by zenith called back in the day at otasco and tg&y?

OK trivia question...whatwere the color tvs made by zenith called back in the day at otasco and tg&y?
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Trick Question?????...TG&Y called their T.V.'s Golden T...But, I think there was a name on them before that. I know they had a Wagon named TG&Y's Radio Flyer...I still have one of them....and your Gyroscope.....Got me on the other....