A young man in Buzzy’s Country Store awhile back informed me that he had visited the store previously as part of a school class trip when he was a kid. I guessed immediately “Sidwell Friends?” He laughed and asked me how I knew. I told him that Sidwell was probably the only school to have ever had Buzzy’s on their class trip itinerary.
I thought of the young man just the other day when going thru some of Buzzy’s old photos and found these from November 2001.
As you can see, Buzzy had Guy Distributing make up a welcome sign for the group. They made return trips each year to the Store and Buzzy gave the bus driver and the Sidwell coordinator (photo above) each a six pack for stopping in.
One year, Buzzy had a Doctor’s appointment and asked Berta to cover while he was gone a couple hours. Knowing that the Sidwell Friends were planning on visiting, he hurried back to the Store. As he pulled in the parking lot he noticed that the Friends had indeed made it and that the kids were all standing in a line waiting to get in the Store.
When he got in the Store, Buzzy asked Berta what she was doing making the kids wait in line. Berta told Buzzy that there was no way she could keep an eye on all of the kids being in the Store at once so she was only allowing 2 in at a time. Buzzy quickly overruled her and let the kids come in together. As he noted, all of the kids had spending money and he wasn’t worried that any of them would shoplift from him.
Note – if you are not familiar with Sidwell Friends, it is a private school in D.C. where parents with money send their kids. The following is an excerpt from their Wiki entry:
I do recall Buzzy saying something about Al Gore’s son being among the Sidwell visitors to the Store. Wonder if he was in the group that Berta made wait in line to get in Buzzy’s.
Speaking of waiting, I am still on standby for my travel agent to book us a trip to visit and check out Red Rocks:
Buzzy’s – open today and no line to get in!