Humans of Cleveland — Lee Clarion

We've always passed the Orange Blossom Boutique on Keith Street, wondering what exactly it was, and never stepped inside. This week we decided it was time to follow our curiosity and enter the 'one stop girl shop.'

Upon entering, we were immediately greeted by Alison Pryor, who kindly asked if we needed help with anything--falling right into our trap. Orange you glad? (Sorry, I had to!)

'How did you end up in Cleveland?'

'I'm from Cleveland, so I moved here whenever I was two months old. So I've grown up here. I went away for college and some school after that, but I've been back here two and a half years.'

'Can you tell us about your time in college?'

'I loved my college experience. The best thing, which I think doesn't work out always for everybody, is I was randomly assigned a roommate freshman year and we became best friends. And our next door neighbors, who were also randomly assigned, they got along. So the four of us lived together all four years. That doesn't happen very often.

'Are you still friends?'

'I am. One of them, my actual roommate that first year, lives in Spain. She taught English the first three years she was there and now she works for a law firm in Madrid. So I've gone over there to visit her. And every time she comes back here, she comes back to the U.S. for Christmas to see her family down in Florida. I flew down to Florida to be able to see her."

'What's something you learned in school?'

'I was in a sorority in college, and I was involved in different leadership positions. I think doing that helps you become a leader and know how to interact with people outside of that. But you also have so many personalities within that group so I think it helps you'once you're gone'to know how to communicate and work well with multiple different people.'

'What are you passionate about?'

'I've always really loved dance. So I danced here in town growing up, and then I did it in college as well. So now I attend Broad Street United Methodist and I teach little girls dance on Wednesday nights there. They get to perform at the different church services and some other events. It's a lot of fun to be able to have gone from the student side and the performer, to then be on the other side and see the little girls do that. I really enjoy it.'

'How did you end up at Orange Blossom?'

'Pat Fuller; she's the owner of the shop. We attend the same church and we're family friends, and she needed some help so I've been here. It's fun to see all the clothes and meet people as they come in.'

'Can you tell us a story about your family?'

'We have a house that's up on the Hiwassee River in Northern Bradley County. During the winter they let the water down so you don't have year round water. But you end up just getting a little bit and it's just the riverbed and everything. We used to, whenever I was little, go out, and we'd call it 'goin muddin' and we'd put on our little rubber boots and go walk across the riverbed. And you'd find all kinds of stuff, like there would be an old TV that someone has dropped in there. One time we did it'it was my mom, my brother and I, and our dog. We got out there and we were going, and I don't know what happened but we got so exhausted we definitely felt like we were not going to make it back and kept on getting stuck in the mud. Luckily, having the dog there was good because she has four paws and doesn't get stuck as often. We kept having to push up on her to get ourselves unstuck. We made it back okay. I haven't gone mudding in 15 years or so. I was actually talking to my mom about it a few weeks ago, that it would be really fun if we did that again.'