Around this time last year, I published my first love letter to Poor Boys Produce Stand, but over the past year, I discovered more reasons to love the place, so here I am again. While I appreciate that I can find Daisy’s Bread in the local produce stand all year round, Doug Steger’s story about how he ended up working at Poor Boys is perhaps even better.

Doug tells me that, in 2014, he’d been using a walker for 2 years when he went by the produce stand in its previous location. When he got there, Poor Boys’ owner Garry Ayers, knowing Doug’s experience running the Flower Shop, approached him with a proposal to come work with him: “Come on down if you can and maybe we can help each other out.” Since then, Doug and Garry’s partnership has, quite literally, blossomed into something that benefits this entire community (see photos below).

At the Marketplace tonight, my kids got stickers emblazoned with the Town’s new slogan: “Pulaski: Where your new path begins.” I know they say slogans need to be short and pithy, but I really think that, at our best, our community is better summed up by Garry’s characteristically humble line: “Come on down if you can and maybe we can help each other out.”