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Gerlib's store started in 1947 and lasted 42 years. Mr. Gerlib purchased a harness repair shop on the north side of Cliff St. next to Sutherland's Bakery. The store was one of the only stores in the Okanagan valley to stay in the same location for forty-two years. During that period of time the store attracted many people from the North Okanagan and Shuswap area as far away as Revelstoke.

Mr. Gerlib came to Kelowna looking for a job which was advertised in the Winnipeg newspaper. The ad stated that there was a shoe shop repair business for sale in Kelowna. When Mr. Gerlib had arrived, though, the man change his mind about selling the business.

Mr. Gerlib was very impressed with the mild temperatures and lack of snow, for Winnipeg was very cold and had lots of snow in November. So Mr. Gerlib decided that the Okanagan valley was for his family and for a shoe business. He travelled back to Winnipeg and then came back to the Okanagan Valley in February. He searched the Okanagan Valley for a business that was suitable for him and his family. There was nothing so he decided to go to the coast to look for a suitable business. Fortunately, the bus that he was taking stopped in Enderby. When Mr. Gerlib got off the bus he started talking to a man and a woman who were repairing harnesses. Mr. Gerlib mentioned to the couple that he was desperately in search of a business location for him and his family to operate a shoe repair shop. The couple confided in Mr. Gerlib that they would sell their business to him. Mr. Gerlib didn't get any further.

Soon after Mr. Gerlib bought the store, his wife and family sold everything in Winnipeg and came to Enderby.

Mrs. Gerlib's first impression of Enderby was "it was such a let down". Mrs. Gerlib said, "We had left a modern home and modern conveniences in Winnipeg and came here to a shop that didn't look like much and no conveniences at all." Mrs. Gerlib said that in many ways Winnipeg was better. For example, they left modern plumbing and electric stove and had to adjust to outdoor plumbing and a sawdust-burning stove. Mrs. Gerlib's boys did not like Enderby at first either. They did not want to go to school here, but Mrs. Gerlib told them they had to adjust to Enderby for "we weren't going back east again." Mrs. Gerlib stated in her interview that it didn't take long for she and her family to meet people and to fit right in Enderby. "We even got used to using a back house," she chuckled.

When Gerlib's store first opened it was strictly a shoe repair store, but as the years went by it has expanded to a clothing and shoe store. While the Gerlibs were only selling shoes their prices ranged from $2.95 for children's shoes to 25 dollars for cork boots. When it expanded to clothing Mrs. Gerlib remembered that she could buy a line of dresses for $6.95 each and near the end of the 42 years the same line of dresses cost 60 to 70 dollars.

Mr. Gerlib worked in the store for a long time, then branched off in Armstrong and Salmon Arm. Not long after that, he sold the locations in Armstrong and Salmon Arm and concentrated only on the Gerlib store in Enderby.

When Mr. Gerlib passed away, Mrs. Gerlib kept the business operating. Mrs. Gerlib stated, "It was hard right from the first, but I worked at it and saw it through, and I enjoyed every minute of it." Mrs. Gerlib went on four buying sprees a year for merchandise for her store. When buying for her store she had to be careful, for the clothing had to be stylish but suitable for Enderby. In later years it was very hard and confusing to buy merchandise at the selling shows for there were over two hundred sellers and you had to be very careful about what you bought.

Mrs. Gerlib has seen many travelling salesmen "come and go" and she saw more than a generation of sellers and buyers at the market shows. The biggest changes were in the styles and the prices of the merchandise. Another big change occurred in freight charges. When she first started it was $1.49 and "now its 8 dollars to 10 dollars for a lesser quantity."

"But," she commented, "I enjoyed it, all the years. The 42 years went by too fast. Everyone was very nice and it was good to be busy. It was nice to be able to keep up with the styles."

Debi Case
ALF School 1989