Rose’s and the Crawling Derby
Rose’s was one of the first Five and Dimes, originally called Rose’s 5c 10c 15c. It began in tiny little Henderson, NC in 1915. At the start of WWII, Rose’s had 118 stores. Charlottesville opened its first store at the Barrack’s Road Shopping Center, and all was well until the arrival of Walmart. Then it was arrivederci and last week Rose’s announced it would close the Charlottesville location.
My most vivid memory of Rose’s came around 1972 when the Barrack’s Road store announced its First Annual Crawling Derby. It was like the Kentucky Derby except instead of horses, there were one-year old babies lined up at the starting gates. Our son, Jimmie, was about one at the time and he was a world class crawler, so we decided to enter him. There were five contestants as I recall.
The crawlers lined up on the floor about 30 feet from the finish line and the Rose’s Manager blew his whistle and they were off. Sort of. Each baby crawled a bit, then began looking around at the crowd. Some started crying. It then became unclear if any of the young contestants would ever reach the finish line where the parents urged them on. I finally got Jimmie’s attention when I took out a pack of cigarettes from my pocket and made a crackling noise. Jimmie loved to dig cigarette packs out of my shirt pocket when I held him. He heard the cigarette package calling, and lickety-split, he flew down the track and won the race by several baby lengths. We were awarded a basket full of baby items and toys for first prize. While Jimmie chewed on the package of cigarette’s, we thanked the Rose’s Manager for the generous prizes.
Over the years, we bought a lot of things from Rose’s, especially children’s and household items. They had a nice selection and always reasonable prices.
Unfortunately, Rose’s is no more. Walmart now dominates. While the mega store may have offered “always the lowest prices”, they never once held a Crawling Derby.
