Visitors to Buzzy’s

I get visitors into Buzzy’s Country Store all the time and as we move into “the season” when tourists and day trippers are out and about, these types of visits will pick up. Most of these are what I call “casual visitors” as in those folks driving by, who decide to drop in, check the place out and just enjoy the vibe of being in a real deal country store.

But then I have those I call “serious visitors” who come to Buzzy’s with a purpose or are on a mission so to speak. These folks will drive way out of their way just to drop into Buzzy’s and say hello. They come there because they want to be there. Some of them, I have known previously from years ago and they drop in say hello to me and of course that always makes me feel good that they do so. Other “serious” visitors drop in for various reasons.

For instance my cousin Iris Roberts called me recently to tell me about how she was doing a County familiarization tour for a friend who had recently moved here and wanted to bring him to Buzzy’s and introduce us to one another. Here is a photo I took of Iris and Kevin Jordan when they visited Buzzy’s.

As I talked to Kevin I learned that he was recently hired as an Assistant States Attorney. When I asked him if he was our new States Attorney Jaymi Sterling’s first hire he laughed and said “Number 3.” (For a related article on new Assistant States Attorney hires click here.) My thanks to Iris for bringing Kevin down to Buzzy’s.

As stated, other visitors to Buzzy’s are folks whom I haven’t seen in many years and since they know how to find me, they drop into Buzzy’s to catch up. Deb Bennett Esclante, who now resides in Arizona, was home recently for a visit and surprised me when she visited to say hello. (Deb is related to the Bennetts who used to own Bennnet’s Bar below Buzzy’s.) I took this photo of her posing here with Kim Wiley. (Usually it is Kim taking the photo of me posing with someone as she did here in this next pic of Ken Lamb and me.)

Ken too surprised me when he dropped into Buzzy’s following my visit to his Tackle Box a few days previously.

Following my inquiries into where the original Tackle Box was initially located, Ken dropped into Buzzy’s. He told me the history of how his father started the business in one location before moving it to his current place. Ken eventually took the business over from his father. (With all of that father-son-business dynamic, you can see why I get along with Ken.)

And then I had a group of folks in Buzzy’s who really were on a mission. These folks were from out of town and had dropped into Buzzy’s as part of their roots visit to check out places that used to belong to their ancestors. Ray Gagnon, who now owns the house that their ancestors used to own, referred them to me. I had shown Ray the chapter in Mr. Bradburn’s book where he discusses James Hall who was my visitors’ great grandfather.

Knowing that Ray’s home is/was more renown for being “The Spy’s House,” I contacted Pat Woodburn who very graciously met with these folks at Buzzy’s to discuss all this. In the course of their conversations, they discussed how their Pembroke ancestors at one time owned a large parcel of land that the Navy eventually purchased for the Base. Turns out that Pat’s father and his family worked for the Pembrokes on that very farm. How is that for some small world coincidental stuff? Subsequent to their visit, Pat sent me this email from his Cousin Jason Babcock:

My most recent visitor of note (and the one that prompted me to do something like this here on the Buzzyblog) dropped in this past Thursday evening as I was about to leave Buzzy’s. Monsignor Karl Chimiak is now back in the County serving as pastor at St. Cecelia and St. Peter Claver Churches. (I found this 2020 article discussing him and his career as an Air Force chaplin (click here.)) Several years ago, here in the County, Msgr. Karl served as pastor at St. Michael’s and St. George’s Churches. It was great reminiscing and catching up with Msgr. Karl. Terri Yates took this photo of us.

Another type of the “serious visitor” are those I refer to as the “out-of-town-guests” that local folks will bring to Buzzy’s to have a drink and to relax. I always tease these folks that they get the prize for coming the farthest just to visit Buzzy’s.

My Buzzy friends Chris and Lois brought their West Virginia friend Cathy to Buzzy’s and she followed up sending me a nice license plate and this note that I now have posted on the cooler:

Leaves me no choice then but to play this tune for you: