FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Step back into yesteryear
at Carrizozo landmark
| Roy's Gift Gallery |
| September 16, 1998 -- Amid merchandise filled shelves and carefully tended memorabilia, Roy's Gift Gallery in Carrizozo, New Mexico delights customers with it dual personalities. The gallery not only serves as a variety store, but also a haven of museum-quality treasures. |
| Owner, Roy N. Dow, wanted to serve the local and tourist market with his shop, soda fountain and floral telegraph service. |
| Today's Gift Gallery thrives in the venerable Paden's Drug Store building, a Carrizozo landmark since 1909. Filled with original furnishings, antiques, collectibles, pictures--even medical instruments--Paden's lives again to the delight of old timers remembering youth and youngsters creating memories. |
| Visitors first notice the 1930's soda fountain. Lit by sunny windows, its green and brown marble counter, white marble-knobbed dispensers and heart shaped wire-back chairs hint at the towering banana splits of childhood or a cherry Coke shared with one's sweetheart. "Probably every tenth customers says, 'I used to work at a soda fountain,'" says Dow, scooping out a double dip. He displays conical metal ice cream scoops from Paden's in the mid 40's. "If I could get liners to fit, I'd use these instead of the modern ones." |
| "That's Dr. Paden," he says, gesturing to a sepiatoned photo of a slim, serious looking man. With little prompting, Dow tells of Melvin G. Paden, M.D. who, in the 1880's and 90's doctored in White Oaks, a few miles north of Carrizozo. In 1906 Paden moved to Carrizozo, built his office, apothecary, and soda fountain in 1909; then in 1913 added a second floor as a hospital. Until he sold in 1935, Paden was one of three Carrizozo physicians and his store a popular business. Even after several pharmacists continued the business until 1976, Carrizozo folks still called it "Paden's." |
| This place holds quite an attachment for me," Dow says. "I guess it's because I always wanted to work here when I was a kid." His brown eyes twinkle. "Now I do." |
| Decide for yourself if the Carrizozo time machine is a corner store or a treasure storehouse. Visit the Gift Gallery at U.S. 54 and E. Avenue, Carrizozo New Mexico. Tell Roy Dow that the Paden spirit sent you. |
| --Yvonne Lanelli
Now For A Little History Click On Picture
|
|
|
| For More Information Contact: The Gift Gallery P.O. Box 987 Carrizozo, NM 88301 Telephone: 1-575-648-2921 |
