I hiked through downtown St. Petersburg, late in the afternoon. I spotted a "senior" lady sitting quietly on a bench. I have learned the hard way that senior citizens are seldom interested in having a portrait made. Young folks (like under 30) are used to camera phones, Facebook, Instagram and the like. They share pictures all the time. But for older folks, not so much.

But as soon as I began speaking to Evette, she was smiling and shrugging, "OK". She said that she'd had her picture taken at least 10 times that day. Evette worked as a docent at the Dale Chihuly museum, a block away. Read about Dale Chihuly's glass blowing HERE.

I had been there, so we chatted about blown glass for a few minutes. She was from Brooklyn, NY, and had lived in New York for many years. I explained that I was born in neighboring Queens, and that my Grandmother had worked at Sears, in Manhattan. Evette was perplexed, she could not remember a Sears in Manhattan. I said that she was not in retail, but worked in a back office. That made sense to Evette, as she was well versed in the various stores, and could not remember a retail Sears in Manhattan.

We agreed that the new "box stores", Wal-Mart and the like were taking over. When I was a kid, the only store hat was a bit similar to Wal-Mart was E. J. Korvettes. Her eyebrows shot up, "you remember Korvetts?" Well, yes. Then she asked if I knew how E. J. Korvetts got it's name. I did not. She said that it stood for Eight Jewish Korean War Veterans. They started the company. No, I certainly did not know that.

Then she quickly excused herself and left. The suddenness surprised me. We had spoken for about 20 minutes and she ran off as if she had a forgotten appointment.

That evening, that bothered me a bit. So, I googled E. J.Korvett. The first store opened inn 1948, prior to the Korean War. Evette had pulled my leg and left before she started laughing in my face. Hey, it's not nice to pull the photographer's leg! :-)

Bob