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Window Shopping
Tribune photo published November 27, 1957

"Hey Dad, Here's That..." - Ames youngsters have taken to window shopping as more and more stores have decorated their display windows with Christmas toys.  The holiday season will begin here Friday when the lights on the Christmas decorations downtown will be turned on.  Downtown stores will be open Friday evening.  Santa Claus will be at all the Ames movie theaters Saturday.  Free tickets may be obtained from Ames merchants.

This 1957 photo shows two Ames youngsters enchanted with the holiday toys displayed in the window of the Western Auto Store at 214 Main.  Besides the tricycle and basketball that are so visible, other toys include a hobby horse, clown, bike basket, BB gun pinball machine, ice skates, Hubley Texan cap pistols, Tinkertoy Construction sets, doll, stuffed animal, toy trucks, guitar, toy jets, baby carriage, toy piano, and many more.

OH, LOOK!  ISN'T THAT PRETTY!  And so began an exciting Christmas shopping trip for Donna Hayward, 8, and her brother, Richard, 11, in downtown Ames.  They are children of Mr. and Mrs. Don Hayward, 306 22nd St.

I'VE BEEN GOOD AND I WANT -- More than 2,000 youngsters crowded into Ames theaters Saturday as guests of local merchants and the Chamber of Commerce for a special program for the opening of the 1957 holiday season.  As can be seen, Santa Claus was on hand, and most of the boys and girls took the opportunity to inform him of their wishes.  The little fellow on the right, however, looks almost as though he had changed his mind.  After Christmas, no doubt, he will feel differently about Santa.