2.20.2007

Forever Changes...and I hate it! Part I.

I love chaos. I gravitate toward clutter. I love places that are packed to the gills with stuff. Maybe this is why I felt so at home working at Finnegan's. In other clutter news, one of my beloved San Luis Obispo institutions is going through some major changes. Law's Hobby Center is probably one of the places that most heavily influenced my childhood, and , judging from my current interests, my adulthood as well. It had EVERYTHING! My parents would take my brother and I there after Mass on Sundays, so we could browse and buy some stickers for our sticker books. Oh, my god. It was a heavenly browsing destination. So much dusty crap, so many dated products; things that didn't sell weren't taken off the shelves, they just waited decades for the right buyer to come along. And the prices didn't really change, either!
However, not everyone loves old dirty junk as much as I do, and the store was losing customers due to the opening of both a Michaels and an Aaron Brothers. Fuck those guys. So last year, a bunch of the employees bought the store from the elderly owner, Mrs. Law, and sold off a bunch of stuff to make room for a new art gallery. I got a bunch of great paper ephemera and some other goodies at that sale, and had high hopes that the new Law's collective would flourish, but deep down, knew that my favorite store's days were numbered.

More on the sad fate of a local business tomorrow...

2 comments:

anna said...

Dear Polly,
Perhaps this online store that sells only extremely realistic dollhouse food in 1/12th scale will help?
http://www.oaktreedollshouseminiatures.com/index.html

I love you and miss you,
anna

Anonymous said...

NO NO NO NO NO!

I don't like how this story is going to end!

I hadn't heard about this yet!

Fuck!

How do we protect our sweet and innocent little town from the pillage of progress?!

I know! Quick! Make millions and go buy it all up! Buy the Madonna Inn (and the mountain too! If I get there first, you'll know because I'm stampin it with a big Z!) Buy the creek and the frozen yogurt shop! Buy the mission (even God has his price!) Buy Ray's Barber shop (they don't charge there anyway, do they?) Buy Frank's famous hot dogs before Don passes away and his son sells it to support his windsurfing habit! Buy your old elementary school and rip out the kid-safe plastic structures and replace them with those fantastic and dangerous sharp-cornered wooden mystery monoliths that made us who we are! Do not go quietly! Make millions! Do not delay!