If a man and woman are out on the town — they’re two-stepping, they’re having fun — one thing is all but certain: before night’s end, the rose lady will find them.
And when she does, the man better have $3 in hand. It’s a small price to pay for a husband or boyfriend or even a first date who wants to stay in the good graces of his woman.
The rose lady drives from club to club in Longview and Kilgore. On a mission, she hurries through the front door and scans the crowd for her prey. She darts among them, proffering a bouquet of deep red and other brightly hued roses. Many people say no, but plenty say yes.
She’s sold more than enough flowers to keep her in business for the past 20 years.
“Would you like to buy a rose?”
When the rose lady comes around, you might never think to ask her name. She has one, though. It’s Pam Johnson. Two decades is an eternity in the nightlife industry, and Johnson, 46, credits her longevity to the high quality and reasonable price of her roses. No gimmicks for her.
“These girls from Tyler used to come over with cellophane and teddy bears,” she said. “They think they’re so hot. Well, I have run those Tyler girls out of this town. All I have to have is roses, and that makes my customers happy.”
Johnson works for a local flower wholesaler who did not wish to be named. She earns $1 per rose, plus tips, and she sells around 500 roses a week. On a recent Wednesday night, she wore short brown hair and an oversized pink T-shirt. She cruised past one of the first bars on her route and decided not to stop.
“I think I’m gonna pass,” she said. “If you see one, two, three cars, there’s no sense stopping. Don’t waste your time. It’s still slow. The later it gets, the better it gets.”
Later she rushed through a busy pool hall but had no takers.
“That’s how fast I move when I’m not selling,” she said, back in her
’92 Crown Victoria and heading to the next place. “You have to because you have to keep moving. I’m in and out of there.” Some nights, though, she just strikes out. “I’ve gone out here and only sold one rose in a night or two roses in a night. You just go with the flow.
Just take life as it is. I’ve learned that over the years.”
Some of the interactions with customers can be downright unpleasant.
At a local bikini bar, a man who looked like he’d walked in from a golf course became irate when she stopped at his table. He cursed her and told her to leave him alone. It didn’t faze her. Johnson was happy because she sold 12 roses to more amenable customers.
“Why get mad?” she said. “I used to, but I’ve learned to deal with life and take it as it is, because eventually something good is going to happen.
“I’m sorry that guy got mad, but it’s my job to ask.”
Johnson got an early start as a saleswoman. Growing up in Knoxville, Tenn., she hawked Amway and Fuller Brush products door to door when she was 13 years old.
“My dad taught me how to sell,” she said. “I got a lot of doors slammed in my face, but I’d usually sell some products by the end.”
When she was a little older, she went to work as a carny and traveled for several years operating carnival games and rides. When she became pregnant, she moved with her future ex-husband to his hometown of Kilgore and began selling roses. She has two grown children.
Johnson’s favorite club is the Backstreet Bar & Grill in downtown Longview. It’s an older crowd, and the people are decent.
“Watch as I go up to each customer and give them a hug whether they buy a rose or not,” she said.
Inside, a man with a long beard, longer hair and a white cowboy hat was wailing karaoke. At a table for two, Glinda Lonsberry’s date bought her a single red rose.
“Roses make a woman feel very special,” said Lonsberry, of White Oak. “It’s a statement saying to her that she’s special.”
Many of the bar patrons propped their flowers in empty beer bottles. As Johnson was finishing her rounds, someone bought a rose for a woman with bright red lipstick.
“Wait!” she said. “Who bought me this?”
“Secret admirer,” Johnson replied.
The woman was astonished. The rose lady had made her night.
4,434 responses to “Selling roses to Longview’s drunks”
By the conclusion of the 2015 Tippeligaen, Horvath had helped Molde concede just 31 objectives for the season, the second-finest mark in the league solely behind champions Rosenborg.
Holiday decorations. Vacation decorations could be bulky, and infrequently get faded or damaged when saved in pump rooms.
With Molde thus qualifying for Europa League Group A, Horvath joined Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller, Tim Howard, and Brad Guzan as the only American goalkeepers ever to play in the UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup group stage.
Walk one block to the first small street and switch proper.
??????
Introducing to you the most prestigious online entertainment address today. Visit now to experience now!
I really like reading through an article that can make people think. Also, thank you for permitting me to comment.
Hello, i think that i saw you visited my web site thus i came to ?return the favor?.I’m trying to find things to enhance my web site!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!
Introducing to you the most prestigious online entertainment address today. Visit now to experience now!
I seriously love your site.. Great colors & theme. Did you make this web site yourself? Please reply back as I’m hoping to create my own website and would love to learn where you got this from or just what the theme is named. Thank you.
Introducing to you the most prestigious online entertainment address today. Visit now to experience now!
789club
Good ? I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your web site. I had no trouble navigating through all tabs as well as related information ended up being truly easy to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it at all. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, web site theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Excellent task..
Excellent web site you have here.. It’s difficult to find quality writing like yours nowadays. I honestly appreciate individuals like you! Take care!!
With all of the useful features of seamless character and word erase, line splitting, and full correction capabilities, the Nakajima retains the feeling of a classic typewriter whereas offering the fully digitized experience.
To actually taste it the Italian means, order the Pizza Margherita sort.
A muscular Russian lady, Steve Hong’s bodyguard, who trains Daniel to reduce his weight.
Enter the amounts you paid for qualified solar water heating property.
Choosing a steel field as your gear pool cover might be an inexpensive and low-maintenance possibility.
However, the Italian shot-stopper suffered an harm and would not be seen between the posts till February in a FA Cup sport in opposition to Huddersfield City.
The decoration is essentially made up of heraldry and variations of the fleur-de-lis design.
The Leptat approach permits the glass to replicate mild from many surfaces, like a jewel-reduce gem.
If air will get in right here, one can find that the system fails to get onto prime or underneath sucks.
The pedals we sell will not be made with deliberate obsolescence in mind- they will not find yourself polluting our landfills and causing you to purchase a alternative.
He began competing at selected events in the Porsche Carrera Cup France that 12 months with the group SOFREV Auto Sport Promotion.
Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Occasions 16 Jan 1968: d1.
This year the Texas Book Festival has chosen as its signature image Wittliff’s iconic Crossing the Rio Grande, which captures the Hat Creek Outfit (Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, Rick Schroder, Robert Urich, Tim Scott, and D.B.
Leclerc couldn’t pinpoint the Saharianas, so he tasked the LRDG with hunting them down and robbing the defenders of their cell reserve.
Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon every day. It’s always helpful to read through content from other writers and use a little something from other web sites.
Sex tr? em
Introducing to you the most prestigious online entertainment address today. Visit now to experience now!
Hi there! I simply would like to offer you a big thumbs up for your great information you have here on this post. I am returning to your web site for more soon.
For functions of figuring the credit score, do not embody quantities paid for the onsite preparation, meeting, or unique set up of the constructing envelope component.
Nonetheless, red-orange glass beads excavated from the Indus Valley Civilization dated earlier than 1700 BC (possibly as early as 1900 BC) predate sustained glass manufacturing, which appeared around 1600 BC in Mesopotamia and 1500 BC in Egypt.
Kawashima started all three matches for the Samurai Blue, but Japan was eliminated from the tournament within the group stage.
Sure, she has achieved her goals, but she has also fallen too deep into the quagmire of love.
The spinning impeller creates a vacuum.
Introducing to you the most prestigious online entertainment address today. Visit now to experience now!
Koenig landed at Pointe La Mondah on the night of eight November with a force that included Senegalese and Cameroonian troops, and French Legionnaires from the thirteenth Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade.
Thanks for every other informative website. The place else could I am getting that type of info written in such an ideal method? I’ve a undertaking that I’m just now working on, and I’ve been on the glance out for such information.
Individuals from different regions aware of consuming caramel flans, custard or crème brûlée may also get pleasure from sampling panna cotta.
Not preparing in your trip may wreck what would have been an excellent journey.
Courthouse Square in affiliation with Heritage Occasion Company presents New Braunfels Antique Postcard and Paper Show as part of the brand new Braunfels Antique Show.
In March 2020, he donated Indian rupees 50,000 to the West Bengal Chief Minister’s fund for the COVID-19 pandemic.
After we stroll over rough terrain, we robotically look down.
Then, as waves pull away, water rushes out, which sucks more air back down via the top, driving the turbine again.
However, note that as of 2019 this station and all rapid environs are undergoing transformation; development zones and detours abound, but hopefully not at a tempo at which Google Maps can’t keep up with the adjustments.
Find out solutions to those questions and more as you increase your Christmas tree trivia information on this part.
Monster Japan is one more typical resale retailer for pop tradition collectibles.
Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you writing this article and the rest of the website is also very good.