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For those of you that live in or have visited south Florida. There was a hobby shop called Orange Blossom Hobbies. Which had everything a scale modeler or train enthusiast could want. In the 1960’s thru the 90’s it was the place to go. There was a really nice guy who would work in the plastic modeling department. He was always in good spirits, helpful loved to talk about models. His main personal interest was vacuum formed models. Because of the subjects that were not available from the likes of Revell,Hawk,Monogram. And his passion was airline modeling. We all went to the first airline modeling convention in Miami. Clinton Groves from ATP liked Pat as did everyone in the hobby. I would also meet Pat at many conventions. After Orange Blossom closed its doors Pat went to work for Atlantic Models for a while but that relationship was not entirely successful. So he worked at a golf course and found his way again. The people loved him there. There were times he would come to my house to see my models. We were very good friends. So it is with a sad heart that am letting you know that my friend passed away on Thursday last week. This after a courageous battle with diabetes and kidney disease. I would ask for all of us that knew him to remember him. If I know Pat he is working at a really nice hobby shop. I believe that it is under the name Heavenly Hobbies. It’s a great shop where a modeller will find everything they could want. And Pat is behind the counter talking about models. They just don’t make people like Pat Parnther any more. We called him Pat, but his actual name was Cordell Parnther. Please remember my dear friend and his wife, Hope Parnther in your prayers. The would is a little worse off today with his loss.
thank you
Jaime Diaz
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wow 😔
Thank you Jaime for letting us know, yes raised in South Florida and visited orange blossom hobbies at least twice a week, excellent memories shared with Pat, always very knowledgeable about airliners, kits and decals, we will go through the wooden drawers behind the counters looking for hidden decals, great gentleman, rip dear friend 🙏
Cesar
All the best,
Cesar
MIAthank you for sharing Jaime and sorry for your loss. I never did get to Orange Blossom but certainly read about the store and Pat. The story reminds me a little of Clint Groves and ATP on the west coast. I was just at Schaefers Hobby Shop in St Louis today. An amazing place. Hold onto the good memories of people and places.
Ken
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Sad news indeed.
i have not thought about the Orange Blossom for quite some time. My last visit was around 1981/82. I was 13-14yrs old and I was in charge of buying and packing models for my family’s hobby shop back in Guatemala.
I think I remember Pat but I mostly dealt with Gaston in the distribution warehouse in the back. I can’t remember the name of the outfit. During my breaks I will escape to the front and buy goodies for myself. I do remember all the vacuform kits. I had no idea they existed and I fell in love with them.Blast to the past! I hope we all get to that hobby shop in the sky where we will find all those rare models we always wished for.
It is sad that hobby shops are a thing of the past!
Walter
Regards,
WalterWalter, Ken & Cesar,
Thank you for the response and kind words and adding to the memories that many people may have forgotten. Walter, that place in the back was I believe Pan American International, it was a hobby wholesaler I believe. I knew Gaston as well he was into WW-2 German aircraft. After he passed away his family brought a group of his completed models to an IPMS Convention for display only. It was a beautiful display from a man that was a skilled modeler. Augi as we called him was in the train department. The LGB train set we display under our tree at Christmas each year was from Orange Blossom and Augi set it up for me with what he felt would be nice as a future family heirloom. That was back in 1978. Pats wife Hope was very supportive about his hobby. My wife is the same with me, when I met her she was just 15 and the first thing I showed her was my model collection. And she just really liked it, This July we are celebrating 50 years of marriage. Modelling is something that I enjoy as do so many others. I just don’t want Pat forgotten so I did the only thing in my control. I wrote about him, I am not a person that lives in the past because honestly there’s nothing back there. But every now and then I do think about people that were special to me. And honestly gentleman, Pat was just the real deal, the genuine article that is irreplaceable. I am humbled to have been able to know him.
Thank you,
Jaime Diaz
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So sad to hear of Pat’s passing. OB was a must -stop on our trips to south Florida. My wife & I were/are still avid cruisers. We’d fly to FL a couple days prior to the ships’ departure and I’d always make time to visit with Pat. He was always on top of the newest goodies in the hobby. Going through the mounds of airliner decals and discussing trends was a real treat. Imagine if OB were still in business today, what encyclopedic knowledge Pat would be glad to pass along to a newbie. Pat and Clint Groves were the best ambassadors our hobby has ever known.
Alan Aronoff
Where there's a will, there's a relative.Greetings!
Yes, it truly is a sad day… I knew Pat well and we were friends from about 1973-74 when I was in college. He was from Savanna La Mar in Jamaica, and as described, he was always cheerful and had a smile on his face. If I was a little down, a visit to Orange Blossom Hobbies and Pat would always cheer me up and put things right with the world. Pat also never had a cross word to say about anybody either. If you loved airliners, you were okay with Pat. Frequently Pat, Eric Olson and I would hang around on the north side of MIA watching and enjoying airplanes while Eric filmed. Pat was the one who put me on to Liveries Unlimited decals and the talents of Jennings Heilig in turning them out. I never did meet Jennings although Pat wanted me to! Many times he would tell me “You just missed him…he was here ten minutes ago!” Unfortunately, I also never met his wife Hope or his two boys.
Orange Blossom has been gone more than 20 years and I have missed it… Now, I’ll miss Pat too… What a gentleman of a friend, the best! May he Rest In Peace…
Best regards,
Jeff Jarvis
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God's "Curse" to aviation!
I got the news the other day and it broke my heart. Just about every Saturday during my year in Florida, Ralph and I would drop in at Orange Blossom and see what was new, visit with our friends, and Pat would preside over the proceedings in that inimitable way of his. I can still hear him: “So, Jo-die, what’s happenin’ in the world of air-liners?” Since OB was only a short drive from where I worked, I’d often drop by on Monday afternoons and visit for a little while, spend a little more money with him, and often get some one-on-one time talking with Pat. He was a sweet, sweet man with a marvelous sense of humor, and all these years later I can’t think of him without smiling or laughing. His passing is a reminder that those of us who got to know Orange Blossom, and Pat, were lucky folks indeed; and it’s a reminder that for the people in our lives who are special to us, we have to love ’em all we can, while we can.
Jodie Peeler
"In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake." - Sayre's Law
Jodie,
I remember you, Pat always spoke well of you. To think about it he never had anything negative to say about anyone. This was why he was so approachable. We had a real gift in this hobby in our younger years. Most of us didn’t realize how special that time was because we were living it. To think that a scale model of an airliner brought so many people together. And in a different way, we may not see each other alot but we are all here and talking to each other. These are the new memories in a sense, so we really should make something special about it. I wish there was a way of honoring his memory, like we do with Paul Collins. Perhaps name a category in a modeling competition after him. Anyways it is good to hear from you Jodie and all of you in this forum.Thank you,
Jaime Diaz
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