THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412240297
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Ed Minetree remembers with pride the years he crafted special eyeglass frames to hold up his customers eyelids after nerve damage made them droop and close shut.
But then, doctors learned how to snip and sew his clients' eyelids so they could open and close all by themselves.
Over the years, there have been other changes in the eye business. Ophthalmologists began selling regular eyeglasses and contact lenses as well as prescribing them. And the eyewear giant Pearle Vision opened across the street from the family business, Minetree (pronounced mini-tree) Optical Co.
Still, the 25-year-old store in Wards Corner Shopping Center had what others didn't: a comfy waiting room with worn, tweed sofas and an owner who answered the phone to schedule appointments.
Minetree Optical held its own against competitors.
That's why locals strolling by the store facing Little Creek Road might wonder why the business' furniture has been packed away, and the FOR RENT sign is on display.
Competition? Bankruptcy?
Nope.
It's far less complicated: Son Joe Minetree, who took over the business in the '80s, fell in love.
``Joe married a Jersey girl,'' said Joe's mother, Ruby, chuckling as she glanced at her husband and son.
The Minetrees were packing up the business' telephone, equipment and furniture earlier this month. They reminisced about the business, where all three had worked, but there were no regrets.
Joe's time had come.
Joe Minetree met his bride-to-be, Judy, more than a decade ago. She had relatives in Virginia Beach, and they met at a hospital fund-raising event. They would see each other once in a while or call just to say ``hi.''
The couple got married in July.
``Since then, I've endeavored to sell, but there have been no buyers,'' Joe Minetree said.
Although Minetree Optical is being liquidated, it won't be forgotten by its longtime customers. Ed Minetree, an optician, worked at a location down the road in 1959, and opened his own shop in Wards Corner Shopping Center 10 years later. It is one of the oldest shops in the center.
Shirley Leafe's eyes have been watched over by the Minetrees for decades - first by Ed Minetree, and then by son Joe. Leafe's children also got their glasses and contact lenses there. And husband, former mayor Joseph, recently got a pair of reading glasses because ``my arms weren't long enough.''
When one of the Leafe kids lost a contact lens at college, the Minetrees put a package on a Greyhound bus bound for Richmond.
Then, there was the time that Joe Minetree showed Shirley Leafe the newest thing: bifocal contact lenses. She decided to give them a try.
After staggering home, she remembers thinking, ``Maybe this isn't such a good idea.''
At home, she panicked after she couldn't find a lens. It wasn't in the house and it wasn't in her eye.
``I thought it had rolled out to the back of my brain,'' said Shirley Leafe, erupting in laughter. ``I was terrified.''
Joe Minetree rushed over, peered into her eyes, and told her the contact lens had simply fallen out.
As it ended up, the lens had fallen out in the shop, dried out and then Minetree unknowingly stepped on it.
These days, she doesn't like to think about the Minetree optical shop closing.
``I can tell you frankly I was disappointed at first,'' she said. ``But I am happy for him. I do wish them great joy.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Richard L. Dunston, Staff
From left, Ruby Minetree, Joe Minetree and Ed Minetree
Althought Minetree optical is being sold, its longtime customers say
they won't soon forget the shop - or its owners.
by CNB