POST January/February 2015

ing room at home.
That’s amazing. So much has changed.
So much. We moved to East Avenue—actually,
we took the space next to it. It was
a carbon copy, and we broke through. So
then I had 500 square feet at $500 a month.
That was a big deal. Then we got our first
employee. When the Rochester Plaza opened
downtown, they came to us for some reason,
and we got the account.
When was that? That was 1984 or 1985.
We really just outgrew our old space. I remember
working out in the parking lot at the
old store because you just did it. You didn’t
think about it. And then I saw that space on
East Avenue, and they had just redone it, the
whole entire store, and it was for lease. And
to me it was a lot of money. My father was
totally freaked out. He thought for sure I was
going to be penniless. I put all the money I had
saved into the space. And I remember going
in super early the morning we were supposed
to open. It was the week before Thanksgiving.
And I looked around, and I was scared shitless.
I thought, “What the fuck have I done?”
And then the doors opened, and we were
mobbed, and it never stopped. It was kind of
scary actually.
Did you have any idea how forward-thinking
you were, moving into that space, looking
back at it now?
I do feel pride in it. That’s our corner. Even
if people don’t come in to buy something, they
enjoy the window maybe, or they’re inspired
by something. We’ve lived through all the
changes in that area. I think that’s important
on some level. But we were different back
then. East Avenue was a nice address. I wanted
to be upscale. I thought upscale was the way
to go. But now I look at pictures, and I’m horrified,
because our logo was a bird of paradise,
you know?
You used to do bird of paradise?
Oh my God, I get uncomfortable looking
at it. It makes me—I’m a little embarrassed.
So why the change?
We ran like a machine for years until
one morning I woke up and said, “I can’t do
this anymore. If I see another fucking bird of
paradise. If I see…” People just had this image
of an Arena’s look that they wanted. But in my
soul, it was like naturalism and earthy and the
way flowers grow. So one morning I met with
everybody, and I said, “We’re not going to do
this anymore.” We had a whole identity crisis.
Jonathan Rutherford
Issue 9 January / February 2015 | POST 19