Daytime temperatures hit 110 degrees for sixteen days in a row, setting a new record for El Chico. A breeze felt
like the “puff” when first opening a hot oven door.
Two times a year Lulu Belle Swartz, owner of the Be Lovely
Boutique, lined racks, tables and shelves outside her store. She stuffed them
with every item she had in stock and then stretched a big sign across the
establishment’s windows that said, “MAKE
ME AN OFFER”.
Dolly Nelson
stood behind a display of sandwiches and cold drinks. No one was buying the
sandwiches but the cold drinks were almost sold out and it wasn’t even noon.
Dolly started filling plastic bags with crushed ice and offered them for a
dollar each. “Just slip these little ditties inside your bras and you can keep
on shopping in comfort,” announced Dolly as the women lined up for her bra
coolers.
Lulu Belle’s
sales were legendary. Crowds of ladies showed up from miles around expecting
bargains and camaraderie. Today they were screaming across each other bidding
on the blouses, jeans, purses, and jewelry. Like the floor of the New York
Stock Exchange, it was a circus. Anyone visiting for the first time was amazed
that Lulu Belle could decipher the offers through the clamor of high-pitched
female voices that sounded like geese in mating season.
