A Rose(s) by Any Other Name…

In a post from last week I mentioned going to a store called Roses when I was a kid back in DeLand.  I hadn’t been in a Roses in nearly 30 years (the one back home closed and was then taken out by a tornado in the mid/late-90’s).  But little did I know that a few days later I’d be face to face with the modern incarnation of Roses in Quincy, FL: a Roses Express.  I had a few hours to kill Saturday night while the Scrod off-spring was at a Halloween Party in Quincy, and that’s when I ran into this blast from the past.

Well, almost a blast from the past.  The Roses store I remember from the 70’s and 80’s had a fancy blue and white logo, but this one was a gaudy red logo (same font though).  So I was a little let down that I would be able to fake myself out and transport myself back to way-back-when…except that it seems only the main sign has that red background, everything else still has the old blue one from way-back-when!  Which makes you wonder, is this a store that’s still around from back then, and if so have they just not managed to change anything but the main sign?

The afore mentioned post from earlier in the week was triggered by finding a set of gum/candy machines like they used to have at my old Roses, so I was very happy to be presented with a similar set of machines right at the front door.   And from the looks of it the evidence that this is a Roses from way-back-when starts to build when you see both the machines and their contents: they all look like they’ve been sitting there since at least the 1980’s, which is nice.  The rest of the store is unremarkable, and not very much like the one in DeLand 30-40 years ago, but then that probably shouldn’t be surprising.  If I’m honest it felt like a better lit Dollar General store, which is in effect what it is (NOT how I remember MY old Roses…).

One final note, I will be back to Quincy soon, and probably (hopefully) many more times, but with more of a planned purpose than this trip.  There is A LOT of neat, old things around there, and in a related bit to this post the first Walmart in the State of Florida was there (its now moved to a different location), and I’d like to try to find that location, if any of its still there…