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.
 |
| 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
Enjoyed this. John looks so serious.
Selecting just the right booze is serious business.
very serious business.
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?
TYPO! Sorry…
So true!
Sounds like someone is a little nostalgic! Good one!
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.
Thank you Pat! Love you too. Missed you this week, but I hope to see you soon:) And we shall have wine-thirty!
We can’t stop change. I like the take of the store evolving as the children grow up.
Thank you!
Change is always a shock, especially when it’s something that holds sentimental value. Great post! 🙂
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
It was a strange feeling being inside that space…
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.
Thank you! I visited that Toys R Us many times when my kids were young.