[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2784]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING GULA STOUGH ADAMS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MARILYN N. MUSGRAVE

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 27, 2008

  Mrs. MUSGRAVE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a business woman 
from Las Animas, Colorado. Mrs. Gula Stough Adams has poured her heart 
and soul into a business that has been owned and operated by Mrs. Adams 
and her family for 70 years.
  Gula owns and operates Stough's Flower Shop, and has weathered the 
economic storms of rural Colorado going back to the days of the Great 
Depression and WWII.
  ``It's wonderful work. I wish I were 20 years younger,'' said Gula, 
who is 85 and still going strong. Her mother Inez Stough, established 
the business in 1938. Of course, Gula's personal history goes back a 
little farther than that. Before her family moved to Las Animas they 
ranched at Ninaview, Colorado, 35 miles south of Las Animas. ``We still 
have the ranch we homesteaded in 1915,'' she noted. In those long ago 
days she attended Pine Hill School, which her family and relatives 
helped build by bringing in rock and then assembling the one-room 
school. She reports the structure is still standing, and a memento from 
it hangs on a wall in her flower shop, the Regulator clock. When the 
school was reorganized she asked her parents to obtain the clock. She 
walked over and pointed to four letters in the clock manufacturer's 
name . . . Gula.
  The Depression years were not the happiest of times, but the hard 
times brought the family into town from the ranch. Gula's mother knew 
the family had to do something. So Inez thought she would open a flower 
shop. The original flower shop was downtown, but the rent was too high. 
So her mother had a small stucco shop built.
  ``You just think back about the Depression years and you wonder how 
we ever did it, but we did. During the Depression people were able to 
survive,'' Gula noted, adding that people may have managed their money 
better then than they do now.
  Over the last 70 years that she has been in business, Gula remembers 
when Las Animas was thriving. Though it saddens her to see the current 
economic state of this rural community, she still carries on in her 
business despite what some would think to be insurmountable odds. Gula 
never took an opportunity to pull back from the challenges of running a 
small business in rural America. She believes in working hard and sound 
financial management, and it is my firm belief that these two things 
have contributed to her long and productive life. When other businesses 
failed around her she worked hard and spent wisely.
  During World War II Gula married Pete Jerman, Jr., a B-24 pilot who 
went down over the Mediterranean, leaving her a widow. Those were sad 
days for Gula and her family. In 1947, her mother insisted she go to 
Denver and study at the first floral school to be established in 
Colorado. Her mother told her she would be more confident in herself if 
she took the classes.
  Back in Las Animas she married again to Mr. Lloyd Adams. They built 
their current flower shop in 1968 at 702 Grove Avenue in Las Animas, 
Colorado. This will be her 40th year at this location. Gula loves her 
business and the community in which she has run her business for 70 
years.
  Madam Speaker, I am grateful to Mrs. Gula Adams for her dedication 
and courage. She is an example to all of the small businesses within my 
district. It is an honor to represent her in Congress, and it is an 
honor to recognize this small business owner who has been a part of 
this family business for 70 years. She is a tribute to her trade and a 
treasure to her community.

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