47 years

The gentleman that came in today said he bought his wedding rings from Mr. Perri 47 years ago. He is still happily married. What brought him in, in fact, was his wife's current ring which is an 'upgraded' model. People often reset their original diamond in a larger setting with more stones after their first ring wears out. This is what had happened here.
I always like hearing from couples who are still together after so many years and have fond memories of Mr. Perri and the old store. Not many people are lucky enough to have that kind of experience at work.

Time Flies

We have been so busy that I haven't gotten back here to write in quite a while.
I made time today to blog because I ran across this photo and really wanted to share it. This is "Uncle Pete" in front of the old store, the original store. Back then, in the 1940s, the shop was at 129 1/2 W. Congress, at the entrance to the Alianza Club.
I tried doing some cursory research on the Alianza Club and came up with little. According to a member of the Perri family, it was downstairs and was a bar and dance hall. I'll keep trying to dig up information.
I'd be very interested to know what the whole block looked like back then. It was razed and the Pima County Courts were built on that spot in the 1960s.
Now we are in the third location for the shop. It is kind of funny that the current store front is about the size of that original shop. We would like a bigger space but the right one hasn't surfaced yet.
But, with all the changes Downtown, we could see the space of our dreams come open. There certainly are stellar storefronts that are vacant. We'll keep hoping. Meanwhile, we are happy in our tiny, New York-like shop.

The day after I posted this, a gentleman came in the store who knew Mr. Perri from the 'old days.' He recalled several of the businesses that were on the same block as the original store. He had worked at the Lyric Theatre. Steve and I had often perpetuated the misinformation that Perri Jewelers was in the lobby of that theatre. According to the customer today, the Lyric was at 171 W. Congress. There also was a barber shop and "Sally and Sam's Deli" on the block. We also got the mystery of the Alianza Club cleared up. That was an alliance for Mex-Amer businesses. The dance club and bar downstairs was called La Selva. This man told me about a website dedicated to preserving the vanishing history of Tucson. Let's check it out!