ARLINGTON, Minn. — One by one, the Hartmann sisters glanced at the building across the street. Too many memories lie beyond the thick brick walls to ignore it.
“We all started out washing those windows over there,” Cathy Hansen says.
From window washing in their early teens, the five Hartmann sisters graduated to mopping floors and, eventually, waiting on customers and working the cash register at their parents' department store.
“That's the way we grew up,” Jean Stevens says.
The Hartmann sisters — Jean, Cathy, Julie, Sue, and Patty — grew up as daughters of the owners of the only department store in Arlington, Minnesota.
Farm overalls, interview suits, kitchen utensils and back to school clothes, Hartmann's had everything a town of 2,000 needed.
Until Arlington didn’t.
As the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis creeped closer, fewer people stopped at Hartmann’s for their shoes, shirts and skirts.
“We just couldn't complete with the larger department stores – Targets,” Julie Rachel says.
In 1987, Hartmann’s closed its doors.
“It was tough for the town and tough for the family,” Julie continues.
Their department store may be gone, but Gary and Lila Hartmann planted seeds in their five daughters, now blossoming in a small storefront across the street.
On the weekend of Arli-Dazzle – Arlington’s annual celebration of Christmas – a version of Hartmann’s has reappeared.
The Christmas pop-up will be open for just two days.
But for one December Friday and Saturday, all five Hartmann sisters are again welcoming customers and selling goods on Arlington’s main street.
“Back at Hartmann's, yep,” customer Theresa Wroge says gleefully. “Back at Hartmann's.”
Four of the five sisters moved away from Arlington, but all have made the trip back to work in space they’ve rented for the weekend in a former jewelry store.
The small store is crammed with shoppers, browsing for clothing, furniture, Christmas decorations and other merchandise made or repurposed by the Hartmann sisters.
“They just keep coming in the door,” Sue Schultz, the oldest of the Hartmann sisters, says with a mix of delight and amazement.
Hugs are exchanged between the sisters and customers; some they haven’t seen since they worked in their parents' store decades ago.
“It’s like a reunion, all class reunion,” Patty Geister, another of the Hartmann sisters, says.
Though busy, the store runs efficiently. Each sister knows her role. As Sue and Julie work the checkout, Jean and Patty welcome customers. Nearby, Cathy passes out spritz, sandbakkels and krumkake, the same cookies their mother used to leave out for customers at Hartmann’s.
Memories flow.
“Happy, sad,” Cathy says, before glancing away to compose herself.
She believes her parents would be proud.
“They’re smiling, they’re smiling up in heaven,” she says.
In a few hours, fireworks will light the sky, signaling the start of the Arli-Dazzle parade that will cast a holiday glow over thousands of people who’ll come to watch in the cool evening air.
It is Arlington’s brightest tradition.
But it’s warmest?
That distinction belongs to five sisters with love in store.
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