Finding Thalhimers

Oh, how we loved to meet our daddy for lunch in the Richmond Room! My sisters and I followed our mom up the escalators, which became very narrow on the upper floors. On the 4th floor of downtown Richmond’s Thalhimers store, we sat in our wooden chairs (my youngest sister sat in her high chair) and the waitress handed us these children’s menus. Right away, she returned with piping hot, buttery popovers and glasses of chocolate milk for each of us. I can even remember the type of glass: it had a ridge in the middle so two little hands could easily hold it without slipping. We quickly decided what we would order so we could fold our menus into delivery trucks before the meal arrived. “The Little Red Riding Hood” was my favorite thing to order, since it reminded me of Thanksgiving dinner, still the best meal of the year. If we were especially good girls, we stopped in the bakery downstairs to buy chocolate eclairs and rainbow cookies.