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Memories

While Lenny and I own a spacious 5500 square foot gallery, MY office is anything but.  My cubicle is slightly less than 5ft x 5 ft.   (I measured it.)  Add in a desk, a chair, a computer, a purse, a lunch bag, a coat, files, papers and two dogs who sit at my feet and it makes for a very crowded workspace. (Before we remodeled the offices, my desk was next to the men’s room, which was most unpleasant, but I digress.)

In keeping with last week’s blog about New Year’s resolutions, I vowed to clean up my desk and files and get organized.  Step one of that process was cleaning out the space in the shelf above my desk.  In doing so, I uncovered some interesting old treasures:

  • An old photo envelope from June 4, 1940.  Back then, The Art Shop was also known for developing photos.  Notice the phone number – 5315.  (I wonder if you could just pick up the phone and say, “Sara, get me The Art Shop.”)
  • A postcard from The Art Shop from the early 1970’s.  Lenny’s dad, Stan Dolin, moved the gallery to 3912 W Market St from 118 W Market St (downtown) in 1972, so this postcard was probably done shortly after the move. You old timers might remember how close to the street the original gallery was.  There was a narrow sidewalk separating the front door from Market St.  Once, on a very rainy day, one of our very best clients was about to enter the gallery when a car raced by and sprayed a huge torrent of water all over her. Needless to say, she was very unhappy at the time, but we laughed about it later. (We hope she did too.)
  • A photo of Stan & Jennie Dolin at the frame counter also from the 70’s. I love this photo because of the expression on Stan’s face.  He has a devilish grin and looks like he had just said or was about to say something funny, which if you knew him, was something that occurred fairly frequently. (If you know Lenny, you realize the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree.)
  • A photo from 2000.  Notice the red brick had been painted over and we had a very colorful sign and logo.  After a major remodel in 1991, we won “Most Improved Property” by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.  No matter how great the remodel was, it was a very old building, so we jumped at the chance to build a new, state of the art framing and art gallery from scratch when we were approached to move into the shopping center being built next door (our current home). Notice on the marquee in the photo that we were opening in our new location on March 6.  Moving day was March 5 – Lenny’s birthday – which he spent schlepping from the old gallery to the new one working like a dog with the rest of the staff so we could open the next day.

In our blog dated July 13, I wrote about the importance of personal archiving.

I should have practiced what I preached and framed or at the very least, put these items in an archival-quality album so the memories can be savored for many years.  (Hmmm – wonder where I can get these professionally framed?)

Back to cleaning and organizing!

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