The Village Green Historical Center, Palm Springs

I spent a little time Downtown Palm Springs over Memorial Day weekend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, it was perfect for a walk around town amongst the tourists. We ended up at The Village Green Historical Center, where you will find the oldest house in Palm Springs named The McCallum Adobe, built in 1884; There's also Miss Cornelia's Little White House, built in 1893; Ruddy's General Store; and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum which provides information about the native Cahuilla Indians of this region.

At the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum.

Ruddy's General Store is the place that fascinated me the most.  It’s a 1930's store where 95% of all items in this store still hold their original contents. Part of my fascination stems from a designer’s point of view. As a graphic artist, I’ve always paid close attention to packaging design and branding. It was so neat to go in and see how some logos have evolved and how only a few, like the Coca Cola logo, have remained the same. Ruddy’s brought back many childhood memories. It is much like the little corner store near my gramma's ranch down in Mexico. It was tiny and always fully stocked. I loved going down there as a kid in the 80's and running errands for her. Anything she needed, whether it was dry beans, soap, or thread, they always had it! My favorite part was keeping the change to buy whatever my little heart desired, which was usually a Duvalin or Mazapan (Mexican candy). Ahh...I'm sure this is one of those stories I'll tell my daughter one day and she'll undoubtedly look at me like I'm a dinosaur. RAWRRRR! Beware of the Dio-saurous!
Below are a few pictures of our outing. I took the pictures on my phone (Droid Incredible), they're not all that great, but they'll give you a glimpse at all the neat things we saw.

My favorite place was Ruddy's General Store.

As you can see, it was very well stocked!

Prescriptions

Laundry detergent.

The best part, of our outing...most of the places we visited were free, except for Ruddy's which charged only $0.95 per person. They all accept donations, and what a wonderful thing to do; to donate and do our part in preserving a little bit of tangible history for the younger generations to learn, enjoy, and gain a better understanding of how things were “back in the good old days.”

 
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