Porch Sittin'

The glider is back from the powder coater and looking better than it has in decades. The finish is sleek and glossy and the rust is gone, sand blasted to oblivion. Makes a very nice sittin' spot on the new porch. My mom fondly remembers sitting with her high school dates on this glider on her front porch, circa 1950s. I remember it from Big Daddy and Grandmother's back porch in Stone Mountain, and later in McDonough. Nearly every family gathering ended up on their porch at some point, with the glider in motion and fully occupied.

This photo is desaturated and sepia-toned. I wanted it to look vintage, like the glider. (A more abstract/artistic view can be seen here.) The glider's true new color is a dark blueish green. The original color was seafoam green with white squares on the seats and seatbacks, but the only color I ever remember it was hand-painted white with generous amounts of rust showing through the brush marks, and a black base. We won't see any rust for a very long time now...

2 Quarts Will Drive You Kooky

Looking up the "Keep On Truckin'" logo for the last post made me think of wacky packages, another of my 1970s childhood memories. These were trading cards that had parodies of common product logos on them. Not sure why that particular memory should surface, but I had a Kook-Aid tee shirt that was a favorite. I didn't realize that Topps started making wacky packages again a few years ago. If you remember the 70s editions fondly, they are set to release a series of "Flashback" wacky packs this month. Hmmm, maybe I'll have to get a new Kook-Aid tee shirt...

Shredding the Past

I haven't been able to see the surface of our desk at home in quite some time. Neither of us uses that computer (or desk) very often - usually just me, entering our financial data once a week or so. It is an older PC desktop computer. Both of us have newer computers that we use every day. When I do use the computer to access Quicken, I usually just add the paperwork to the pile when I am finished, to be filed later. Well, it is a lot later, and a lot of stuff hasn't been filed. And the files we had have been overstuffed. This weekend, I snapped and finally decided to do something about it.

Several hours later, I had a bunch of piles: file, recycle, or shred. I also went into my "archives", where I had financial statements dating back to 1995, all neatly arranged and sorted into folders by year. Real estate records should be retained forever. I also keep tax records forever. But billing statements for utilities and credit cards, and vehicle records for cars I no longer own... I don't need to keep all that crap forever.

It felt pretty good to feed all of that stuff to the shredder. Not quite cathartic, but the "schtuff" I was dealing with is pretty old and I was pretty much over it years ago. I was particularly happy to rid myself of certain years that should have been good, but weren't. Buh-bye, 1995 and 1996. So long, 1997 - 1998. See ya, 1999 - 2000. And 2001. You're outta here!

In Memory of Bookstores

By 'bookstores', I mean real, independent, locally owned bookstores that had their own distinct personality. NOT huge national chain homogenous bookstores that are all basically exactly alike. I do shop at these now, mostly because they are the only ones around so it is B&N or Borders, or nothing at all. And yes, I have certainly bought (and sold) my share of books from online retailers. But for browsing pleasure, there is (or was) nothing like the old kind of bookstore. Three in particular stand out in my mind.

I discovered Atlanta's Oxford Books while I was an undergrad at Georgia Tech. The original location, up the road from Tech in the Peachtree Battle Shopping Center, was always a fun place to visit. Large in the way bookstores seldom were before the Big Box Bookstores showed up and skewed everyone's expectations, it even served coffee and pastries. This was before those items became ubiquitous in bookstores, so it was somewhat of a novelty. Cramped aisles crammed full of every kind of book you can imagine, it was a browser's paradise. It got even better when they relocated to an old car dealership in Buckhead. Miles and miles of books, magazines, cards, posters, music... you name it. They had a better selection of sheet music than most music stores. Huge non-fiction section in tons of categories, loads of fiction, plenty of room for browsing and hanging out, lots of windows, and an open, spacious layout - ahhhh. Best 'new books' bookstore EVER. Unfortunately for all Atlantans, it did not weather the coming of the B&N and Borders megastores well, and went belly up. It is a shame. Those bland megabooksellers don't hold a candle to the Oxford experience, in atmosphere or selection.

Oxford Books had a sister store for used books: Oxford Too. It was located in an old house around the corner from the original Oxford shop. Oxford Too had an excellent selection of used books, and also sold discounted new books (remainders and such). I can still remember the library smell and the creaky hardwood floors. They had a great collection of used science fiction. I spent many happy hours at Oxford Too, browsing and reading. I still have some of the used paperbacks I purchased there.

Years later when I lived in Massachusetts, a friend introduced me to Avenue Victor Hugo on Newbury Street in Boston. What a great place! It was in an old brownstone, and the bookshelves were all crowded into it. Navigating that store was a challenge! The shelves lined every wall floor to ceiling and formed an intricate maze in the rooms. Stepstools and ladders were necessary items, and just added to the clutter. There was an upstairs section that was even more convoluted and cramped, and they had a fantastic selection of rare books. This shop had a lot of quirky character, and even hosted a resident cat. It was always fun to shop there, and you never knew what kind of gems you'd find. AVH closed the Newbury Street store forever in 2004, but survives today as an internet bookseller. Not the same, though. Not at all.