Winter in Egypt, 2024 - Linda Gets a Haircut and I Make a Nostalgic Trip Back in Time

Linda needed a haircut in early March but the traveling hair stylist that she has used in the past had moved on to greener pastures.  After checking with friends, she located a salon at the nearby Dandy Mall.  We used Uber to take a ride to the mall, about thirteen miles away.

The trip costs about 350 Egyptian Pounds, around $7, including a generous $2 tip.

We found the mall still decorated for Valentine's day as we walked in.

 

We quickly found Linda's destination, the Zacharia Ghoneim Coiffure, and there was a convenient coffee shop, Brioche Doree, located across the aisle.  I settled into a comfortable chair where a waiter quickly brought me a menu while I listened to a musician playing The Girl from Ipanema on a piano in the entry lobby.

 

 

I was anticipating having a nice warm croissant and coffee, but the waiter never returned to take my order.  I eventually left and moved down to the next store beyond the coiffure, which was a Brico Hub Home Store.  Upon entering, I discovered it was actually an Ace Hardware Store.  

And what a selection of tools and hardware it had!  Besides a remarkable selection of hand tools, it had cup hooks in several sizes which I had been looking for.  And speaking of hooks, it had the largest selection of chain hooks I have ever seen.

 

Over in the housewares section, among the plastic dishes, pails, wastebaskets, etc., I stumbled onto a set of Wilton cake decorating accessories.

 

That brought back nostalgic memories of my first visit to Chicago in about 1974.  The Pillsbury Company, where I worked as a computer programmer, had just purchased Wilton Enterprises for about $9 million.  My boss and I traveled to Chicago to see if there were any recommendations we might make about their computer usage.  

We ventured via taxi to the Wilton headquarters and manufacturing plant on South 115th.  I believe the taxi driver asked us something along the lines of, "Are you sure that's the address you want?"  The drive from the freeway, east to the plant along 115th was interesting.  I wish I had owned the iron bar and gate concession in that part of town.  We found the plant surrounded by a six-foot fence topped with concertina wire; it reminded me of of a military location or two I had been in a few years previously in Vietnam.

Short version of the story - with fifty years of hindsight.

• Wilton was doing fine in the direct-mail business.  There was no obvious synergy with our other Pillsbury businesses.
• Wilton hired an up-and-coming manager, Vince Naccarato, to run Wilton in 1976; he promptly moved the headquarters operation to suburban Woodridge.  Manufacturing would follow.
  
• Pillsbury was sued for anti-trust violations in 1975 accused of trying to monopolize the cake-decorating business.  A jury awarded $4.5 million to Parrish's Cake Decorating Company of Los Angeles in 1981.  After an appeal, Pillsbury was ordered to pay $6 million in 1984 and divest itself of Wilton.  This in spite of the fact Naccarato had bought the company out from Pillsbury in 1981.
  
• Like so many U.S. manufacturing operations, the Wilton manufacturing jobs ultimately went to China.
• Pillsbury still owned the south-side property in Chicago in 1983 and after unsuccessful efforts to sell the real estate, traded it to Republic Airlines for 1 million dollars worth of airline tickets.
• After some thirty years running Wilton, Vince Naccarato took Wilton private once again, selling it to a venture capital firm for $700 million in 2008.
  

A couple of help-wanted ads from 1976:

 

And a look at the plant site today on Google Street View shows a Walgreens store on the property without any barbed wire in sight.  I may have to make another visit to the area sometime.

After Linda's haircut was complete, we toured the mall and found a splendid Egyptian restaurant, Antar, also know as عنتر الكبابجي داندي مول. The food was excellent and the service superb. We highly recommend it.

 

 

We had the usual "salads" and Linda was particularly ecstatic to find beets available.

 

Entrees were delightful. Tom had a sausage and potato stew and Linda enjoyed a lamb and barley casserole. There was an array of desserts available but the meal was just too filling.