Nigro Adventures

This last Christmas, while at Kiva, we received some absolutely amazing gifts from a truly delightful lady. She has mad skills with working with teeny, tiny beads. And she used those skills to drape Christmas ornaments with intricate bead designs. The detail and massive time investment of her efforts were remarkable. We were so thankful and appreciative that she chose to share the results of her labors of love with us.

One ornament, in particular, (the one received by the Park’s manager) caused quite a stir when Shirley said it reminded her of a whore house! What?! *jaws dropped*, *eyes popped* What?! Everybody wanted to know how she knew that.

So she told this story:

Years and years ago when she was a dog groomer, she had a client drop off their dog with the request that she deliver it back to them when she was done. She agreed. (By the way, this is the ONLY dog she ever agreed to drive back to its owner’s when she was done grooming it.)

Turned out that the dog was to be taken to an address on 25^th Street in Ogden, UT… way back before the restoration effort and the quaint “Historic 25^th Street” campaign occurred. Uh oh. The area had all the building’s windows covered with security bars, was littered with pawn shops, payday loan places, seedy bars, etc.

You can imagine Shirley’s trepidation when she approached the establishment where she was to drop off the dog. When she entered, she saw a waiting area with comfortable furniture. The person at the entrance directed Shirley to take the dog through the building to a room in the back. On her way, Shirley was bewildered. There was one very, very big room. Along the exterior walls were double beds with delicate bead and lace encrusted canopies over them. There must have been 10 beds on each side. She went down the central walk space toward the back on a lush red carpet, the kind you would imagine for the red carpet treatment for a dignitary or other important people. The beds were covered with rich red spreads and the whole place was dimly lit, which made a low reddish glow throughout the room. OMG, this place had to be a whore house!

Once she started toward the back with pup in hand, she was hesitant to continue. But what was she to do? Turn around and run, then phone the customer from a pay phone outside (note that this was before the days of cell phones) to come get his dog and give her $13.95 plus whatever tip he was willing to pay for the delivery. Well, since it was it was apparent that the business was closed at the moment, she decided to venture on to the back where the small office was located. She was grateful to find the owner of the small poodle she was carrying. He was happy to have beautiful Fluffy back. The pup was happy to see him, wagging her tail with joy. He rewarded Shirley’s efforts with a 20 dollar bill and she swore she would never deliver a dog to anyone ever again.

Thus, the ornate beadwork in fire-engine red, draping an elegant Christmas tree ornament, gave Shirley an instant flash back to that day she dropped off a prettily groom dog in a whore house!