Mid state, now Bob's discount

That was the second building to house Mid-State Shopping Plaza ‘The Million Item Store’. The first building burned in 1971, a massive fire. The smaller building on the left was built to house Dan Hecht Chevrolet and behind it was the body shop (managed by Russ Braunecker!). Mid-State was an evolution of my grandpa Joe Passalacqua’s lumber mill. My dad, Larry Passalacqua ran the store, while my grandpa moved to Phoenix, Arizona and opened sister stores called Big State in Flagstaff, AZ and Gallup, NM. Mid-State succumbed to competition from K-Mart and WalMart in the mid 80’s and Bob Sheffield bought the building and opened ‘Bob’s Salvage’. Dan Hecht moved to their current location in the late seventies and that building became, for about 5 years, Mid-State Sports. The back was an indoor tennis court. The old body shop is now home to Fetching Mobile Dog Grooming.