Pete’s Sport Shop, long a fixture of downtown business, is closing its retail operation with what owner Rochelle Noblett called “the mother of all garage sales. We’re selling everything from display fixtures to gift wrap, office supplies to baseball bats, literally selling to the walls.”
The company will continue to offer silk screen printing and custom embroidery.
The store was founded by Pete and Flora Minneti in 1959. With five children ages 4 to 14, Pete provided for his family by working as the principal (and sometime bus driver) of Fairmead School in the early years. Flora tended the store with Marcia, the youngest, in tow. The rest of the Minneti kids would walk from St. Joachim School to help out in the afternoons.
“I remember growing up in the store, selling hunting and fishing licenses when I could barely see over the counter” said Noblett, who took over management in 1979...