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Things Change: toys to wine

August 9, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

The entrance looks the same. 

Two-toned bright blue paint covers concrete cinderblocks. I look for Geoffrey the Giraffe, but he no longer greets customers. 

The crowd is older and more subdued. 
Couples walk together searching for just the perfect pinot to go with blackened shrimp. Children no longer pull dazed young mothers through aisles stacked with legos and board games. Instead, bourbon bottles line shelves tagged with recommendations written like book reviews.
decisions, decisions
Cases of wine soar into the rafters where bicycles hung. Along the wall once filled with Mario games, a humidor offers cigars imported from Cuba. Yesterday the back of the store was slathered in Barbie pink. Now a cheese and meat deli provides takeout for busy shoppers. 
Grace Grits and Gardening
Spec’s Texas Superstore
A customer opens the beer case, welcomes the blast of refrigerated air, and lingers over choices. He lingers over the cold air.
The bathroom looks the same. 
I stare at familiar floor tiles, searching for my kids’ footprints hidden and embedded among scuff marks and built-up wax.
Barely-twenty-something girls stand in a row offering samples of merlot and vodka on whiskey barrel tables. Ten years ago, the same girls opened Santa gifts purchased from this very spot.
talya
Yesterday Once More, The Carpenters
Click here for information on Spec’s Texas Superstore.

Filed Under: Life, Memories

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Comments

  1. Talya's Mom says

    August 9, 2013 at 7:23 am

    Enjoyed this. John looks so serious.

    • Gary Henderson says

      August 9, 2013 at 8:15 am

      Selecting just the right booze is serious business.

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      August 9, 2013 at 2:30 pm

      very serious business.

  2. Gayle Glass says

    August 9, 2013 at 8:34 am

    Same customers. They grew up, so the products grew with them. Sill, we wonder if things really get better as we age, don’t we?

    • Gayle Glass says

      August 9, 2013 at 8:35 am

      TYPO! Sorry…

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      August 9, 2013 at 2:31 pm

      So true!

  3. Bryan Jones says

    August 9, 2013 at 3:49 pm

    Sounds like someone is a little nostalgic! Good one!

  4. Patricia A. Laster says

    August 10, 2013 at 5:47 am

    Well-written, poignant piece of prose, m’dear, as I cool off from working in the iris/yucca bed this early morning. Toys must be upwardly mobile–moving where the kids live now–and lowly but necessary spirits move in, catering to the now grown-up “children.” Love it–and you.

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      August 10, 2013 at 5:58 am

      Thank you Pat! Love you too. Missed you this week, but I hope to see you soon:) And we shall have wine-thirty!

  5. Dorothy Latimer Johnson says

    August 12, 2013 at 4:46 am

    We can’t stop change. I like the take of the store evolving as the children grow up.

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      August 12, 2013 at 4:50 am

      Thank you!

  6. Debbie says

    August 13, 2013 at 9:38 am

    Change is always a shock, especially when it’s something that holds sentimental value. Great post! ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. Kathy says

    August 14, 2013 at 7:09 am

    How cool how the store changed from a Toys R Us to a liquor store and how their clientele grew with them. Loved this

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      August 14, 2013 at 10:31 am

      It was a strange feeling being inside that space…

  8. Writercat59 says

    August 14, 2013 at 10:19 am

    What a feeling of nostalgia imagining the toy store before it got turned into a wine store. Loved all the comparisons such as the last part about the twenty something girls giving out samples in the same spot where they opened Santa gifts years ago. Magical. And I love that Carpenter’s song. I have always been a fan of them.

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      August 14, 2013 at 10:32 am

      Thank you! I visited that Toys R Us many times when my kids were young.


Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Sunday Letter: May 25, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: May 4, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Rainy Day Edition
  • Spiderwort: my love-hate relationship
  • Sunday Letter: March 23, 2025

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