I had thought that the Pulic Sales office would be a perfect first post...I was pushed to post sooner than I had planned. Yesterday I had been walking the town and stopped to snap these shots for the post, upon arriving home I found this obituary in the Capital.
hometownannapolis/obituary./Howard Lerner
I am fairly certain that Mr. Lerner was the gentleman who ran the Public Sales Office. The PSO was a fixture here since 1971 on Main St. It has always had a window full of sunglasses, harmonicas, binoculars, and pocket combs. It was the place for guitar strings. Only open odd hours and always a curiosity. I am saddened to see that it will now likely disappear.
If anyone has anything to add as a remembered feel free to share. Other special sides of Annapolis are appreciated. In this web culture I almost never see enough positive press on the businesses and areas of Annapolis that I respect most. My intention in starting this blog is to keep alive the part of myself that still loves her hometown.
That's excellent. I'd like to see more and read others' ideas.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alexis, these are good shots -- I hope you'll keep this journal for reference after all these places have morphed into something else. I don't know when the Public Sales Office opened, but I'll bet it was not long after World War II. It's been there as long as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteIs the PSO gone? I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been downtown in so long, I don't even know if it's still there. If it is gone, I can't help but feel partially responsible somehow. I used to buy guitar strings there and nowhere else. He was the nicest man and the shop was so wonderfully eclectic. I stopped going when it became impossible to park and downtown became sort of....gentrified - I guess. I don't know why I stopped going downtown actually. I feel bad though.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I just read a bit further and saw Mr. Lerners' obituary. How very sad. Thank you Kelly for posting the information and for bringing back the wonderful memories for me.
ReplyDeleteI was downtown with my wife tonight and we spoke to the owner of the ice cream shop next door who told us that Howard had died back in 2010 and the shop was cleaned out. How sad.
ReplyDeleteWe met Mr. Lerner one afternoon, several years ago, when we just happened to wonder into his shop. The store window was filled with such an eclectic collection of odd items, we went in out of curiosity. The store was empty and we began to browse in wonder at the ancient display racks filled with sunglasses, magnifying glasses, and many other seemingly random items (such as a nose whistle). Many of the display "blister packs" were decades old, empty of their items for sale, yet proudly dislayed as if they had just come in stock.
Then a voice slowly rose from the back of the store and a voice said, "I have just what you are looking for". And there was Mr . Lerher, holding a box in his hands, while he walked towards us. At first, we thought we had entered one of those Twilight Zone episodes and we were sure that we would find that we had just been transported back in time to the 1940's. Instead, we found Mr. Lerner to be such a friendly person that we could not resist staying longer than planned. We spoke with him for quite a while and found him to be such a nice man. We made some purchases and will never forget our chance encounter with this unique man who added such character to downtown Annapolis. And our son will never forget the "nose whistle" that Mr. Lerner gave us as a freebie with our purchases.