I am at that age where, upon reflection, the good old days really do seem better. This is a cliche, I know, and one I had hoped to avoid. But still...
Borders
Books & Music was a wondrous place in its day, and its day lasted 40 years.
It was the perfect antidote to the blues, and could be enjoyed all by yourself
if you weren't in the mood to chat, or dress, or on your worst days, even brush your teeth. You could wander the aisles for
hours and nobody cared, browsing travel books promising adventure and excitement or skimming
diet books promising a new you. The children's section offered fun and games
and toys and stuffed animals, and likely a Lego table or Brio train station that was open to
all ages. Hang out reading magazines, or just make a beeline for
the cafe for a coffee and a scone, screw the diet. There was no place better at
Christmas, with endless rows of greeting cards, wrapping paper, calendars, puzzles, coffee mugs and those inane little books that were in the long run completely meaningless, but still earned you credit as having bought a gift. For severe depression, you could slap on some headphones in the
music department and listen to the latest release from your favorite
artist.
This
is all in the past since Borders closed two years ago, squeezed out by advancing
technology. Now you can order up that trashy novel on your Kindle and read it on a
flat screen with an eerie glow, perhaps while you're huddled over your laptop
at Starbucks, answering email and texting on your iPhone. How dreary.
Of course, there are other bookstores. Where I live now, the "oldest one" is Sherman's and has a branch right here in Freeport, just a few miles from my home. I go there every so often, and never find whatever it is I'm seeking. No surprise, since the whole damn place could fit inside the cooking section of the Borders I frequented back in the day. I know, I know--there's always Amazon. But still...
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