As just about everyone knows, Borders Books and Music is closing its doors for good. By the looks of the sparse shelves on my visit yesterday, that day will be coming very, very soon. It was sad to walk through there. There seemed to be the same amount of people as there usually are on a Saturday night, but instead of writing a term papers on a lap top, or reading popular mechanics or playing chess over chai tea, they were picking over the bones of a once fun and popular hang out.
I feel strange lamenting the demise of a corporate big box store that will now contribute nothing to my community but an immense, empty retail space with no discernible alternative purpose (an empty space, I might add, that is one of the most conspicuous forms on the main drag near where I live). It doesn't change the fact that it was a place that I spent many a night wasting time in my youth. More importantly, it was a place that helped foster my artistic impulses as a teen and young adult.
At seventeen, I competed in my first poetry slam. There were about four competitors then. Within months that poetry slam mushroomed into a monthly poetry free for all with slammers descending from all parts of the state (they had to limit the sign up sheet to 30). I met people that challenged my idea of what poetry and art could be and opened my world to writers I never would have known otherwise.
During the past year, my wife and I, along with a couple of friends, played music at another Borders store at least half a dozen times. It was tremendous fun and provided an outlet for another creative pursuit. Hell, we even sold a few homemade CD's. In between I saw numerous musical acts, poets, and a powerful book signing with Wally Lamb. There was even the free Richard Marks performance to raise awareness for music education back in '97 or so.
It seems impossible that I've received my last Borders gift card and made, in all likelihood, my last purchase: Two CD's (I know, how 90's). They were Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Tigermilk by Belle & Sebastian. And one book, Bhagavad Gita. Barnes & Noble is still around of course, and there's nothing wrong with them. For some reason, I always liked Borders better. They had a certain je ne sais quoi. Like most people my age, I'm probably just romanticizing my teen and college years. Maybe it wasn't as cool as I remember it... or maybe it was.
