"The End of Marshall Field's" (#177, Topic N)

Today's Wall Street Journal has a front-page story on Federated Department Store's plan for 810 Macy's nationwide; in so doing, as the story's subheading says: it would be "The End of Marshall Field's." This brings back some fond memories. Back in the 1950s, students from China, though stranded and could not return, could remain in USA only by continuing their studies. I came to USA in 1949 to earn an MBA, planning to go back to China afterward. But, with conditions in China preventing me from doing so, my only alternative was to work toward a PhD. After PhD, what? Two years of practical experience. So, after my PhD at U of Illinois, I found a sponsor in Chicago. In Chicago, Marshall Field is in a league by itself -- occupying an entire square block in a dominant downtown location. It carries quality products -- I managed to acquire a square table, a lamp table, a bench, and two chairs, all teak and ebony in the Chinese tradition, by Baker. They are so well crafted that I still have them -- accompanying me (and later, my wife as well), from Evanston, to Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, Seattle, Dallas, Bethesda, and, now, Silver Spring -- for 53 years! I also bought a most comfortable sofa-and-ottoman pair from MF. Decades later, when we went to Hong Kong as a visiting professor, we left the pair to one of my colleagues at the U of Washington. His father was so fond of it that he offered to buy it from us, but, alas, I was too stingy to part with it. It has been reupholstered and sits in our living room -- along with the Baker pieces. Marshall Field is also known for services. When I left Chicago after two years (by that time, the US government had passed a law allowing stranded Chinese students to remain in USA indefinitely) to accept a teaching position in another state, my sponsor asked MF to send me a vase by mail. When the vase was found crushed after unpacking and had to be returned, MF said not a single word but shipped another -- well packed -- vase. The WSJ story ends with a quote from film critic Roger Ebert: "Don't mess with the name Marshall Field's." I completely concur.