RECONNECTING

Did you ever see the movie You've Got Mail, with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks? I absolutely adored the little bookshop that Meg's character owned in that movie - the one that had been started by her mother, and which she had worked in and loved her entire life - until she was run out of business by Tom's huge megastore. That's why I love Book People over in Austin. It has lot's of different departments, not just kid's books, but it still has that same homey, personal feel.

Where I grew up, in Dallas, there was a neighborhood shopping center within walking distance of our home - called Hillside Village. We were finally allowed to walk up there with our girlfriends once we were about nine or ten. Virtually every single store in the center was independently owned, and pretty much all of the owners lived right there in our community.

There was the fabric store where I got my very first job, which just happened to be named Community Sewing Center. We had John Cobb's Drugstore, where we bought all of our school supplies and played the booth-side jukeboxes. He tucked coupons for free chocolate sodas in with our bags of supplies. We had the bakery, where everyone we knew ordered their birthday cakes, and where my sister and I would occasionally share a chocolate eclair. Then there was the ice cream shop, which was owned by the Ashburn family. Their kids all went to school with us. The mom was a girl scout leader and bird enthusiast who visited my first grade class to show us a teeny tiny hummingbird's nest. My favorite shop was JoJo's Toys, where we bought gifts for every birthday party we got invited to, since they wrapped them for free in polka dotted paper. That's where I got my very first Barbie. The owner knew I was having to save up for her, one 25 cent allowance at a time, but never seemed to mind my coming in just to visit Barbie, and dream of the day when I would finally take her home. On one side of JoJo's was the little shoe store where we each got a new pair of loafers for back to school, white dress shoes at Easter, and new black patent leather shoes in winter. On the other side was the barber shop where my dad and brother got haircuts on Saturday. They gave me lollipops or Hubba Bubba when I came along, even though I wouldn't let them touch my hair (they were forever offering to give me a buzz!).

Of course, we also had a wonderful Five & Dime, as well as a record shop, a delicious smelling shoe repair shop, a Shooty Bop (Dad's term for beauty shop), a florist, Beck's Fried Chicken (not fast food, but a lovely sit-down restaurant for Sunday dinners), The Village Grill, and Conklin's children's clothing store. Gawd, how I loved that shopping center! I felt somehow connected to each and every business there. I can't tell you how much I hate going back now. Not one single store is left from my youth. All have been replaced with the same generic stores that you see in every other shopping center in the country these days - stores whose owners don't even live in the same state, much less in the same community!

All is not lost though. The other day, when I walked into Mima's and found my usual large Diet Coke already waiting out on the counter for me, it got me to thinkin'... about all the little independent shops and restaurants right here in Wimberley... about all the families who own them and the people who work for them, all living right here in our community...and of all the many ways in which I am finally beginning to feel "connected" once again.

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment, if you wish to be included in Monday's drawing!

P.P.S. Many thanks to lizgouletdubois.com for the above image.