When I recently came across my old Thalhimers credit card, I ran my fingers across the raised letters just like I did the day I got it. It was 1989, so I must have been about fourteen years old. Just before the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the newest Thalhimers store at South Park Mall in Colonial Heights, my dad, William B. Thalhimer III, called me to come forward.
Standing before the store’s employees, Dad said, “Elizabeth, this is an important day. It’s a day of excitement and fresh beginnings, but not just because hundreds of people are waiting to celebrate the new store. Because it’s the day you receive your Thalhimers charge card, the first new account opened here at Thalhimers SouthPark.” With a hand on my shoulder, Dad handed me a charge slip and a pen. “Sign right here, Elizabeth,” he said. “Congratulations!” Everyone cheered.
As Dad went on to encourage employees to open credit accounts for new customers, I carefully signed my name in cursive on the line beside the X. I couldn’t believe it! My very own credit card.
Do you remember your first credit card? Do you still have it? Did it have a story? If so, please share…
Finding Thalhimers 
I got my first credit card so I could go to Europe right after college graduation. I had a job lined up and could pay it off as soon as I got my first paycheck (and I did)! But, without my first credit card, I wouldn’t have gone to Europe!
My first credit card was also a Thalhimers card. Not sure what year it was but there was not even a line to sign on. It was simple then. There was no such thing as account fraud. We could even use my mother’s card without her being there. I loved using it – it made me feel so grown up. Can’t wait to own this book.
If I had E. Smart’s powers of observation I might have a ‘first credit card’ story. As I don’t I will be buying ‘Finding
Thalhimers’!
Elizabeth: hilarious, but helping my grandparents w/some financial stuff and just found their old Thalhimers “Tuesday Club” card and another card. How cool!
Andy, that is AWESOME! Snap a picture and email it to me if you get a chance: elizabeth@findingthalhimers.com.
Oh sidebar: found a Miller & Rhoads card, too!
🙂
I received my first credit card in 1987. And it, too, was a Thalhimers charge card. I had just been hired at the Cloverleaf store, in the Boys Dept., and I worked there after school for a year or so before being transferred downstairs to the Young Men’s Dept. My first purchase was a VCR (with my employee discount, of course). I believe that purchase set me back about $450. Funny now, considering that a new DVD player can be had for less than $30. If I remember corrctly, the store manager, Kim Price, was a very kind man who was known for his walk-throughs to not only make sure The Store was being efficiently run, but he always took a little extra time to ask about his employees—things like, how we were doing, how our clientele contacts were coming along, and if we had any questions or comments for him. Those were fun times.
Thanks for sharing your story, Anthony! How funny that your first purchase was a VCR. I remember Kim Price…what a nice man. Feel free to share more Thalhimers memories!
Thalhimers was my first credit card with a very impressive limit of $600! I was 18 years old, it made me feel empowered!