Reply to "It's December. Let's talk about our holiday train store experiences, especially as we started in the hobby...."

As a kid, I first got close to a Lionel layout at Buffum's Department Store, in Long Beach, California.  We made a pilgrimage there every Christmas during the late 1940s and early 1950s.  One of the salesmen wrote down the name and address of a man named Thompkins (Thompson?) who lived in Long Beach, had an operating layout, and repaired Lionel trains.  He had the layout open to visitors every Sunday afternoon.