Foundations Liquidated

By the end of October, all Hastings retail chains will be liquidated. I can't help but feel a little sad about that. During middle school through college, Hastings was probably my favorite store. So many of my favorite things, albums and books that shaped the person I have become, were bought there.

When I first started going to Hastings it was just an out of the way store in the mall. It was near Lane Bryant and a Chinese fast food place. It was ugly in the way that mall stores could be, just rows of cassettes, some albums, and various posters along the white walls. I didn't care. I remember picking up my first (of many) copy of Depeche Mode's Violator there. I played that tape until it broke.

When the store was more successful, it moved to one of the larger areas in the mall. It was near an entrance and had fancy shelves now. There was even the 'Hastings green' on things. It was a standard stop on our weekly trips to town. We'd go there and usually eat at El Chico's. How late 80s/early 90s is that!?

When I went to college, there was a Hastings in the larger town about half an hour from our college town. My best friend and I would go over there and just delight in the things we'd find. They had books by then and I would find a lot of art books related to the geekery I was into. I found new writers, stranger music, and learned how to do zodiac charts.

We were poor in college, so the times when we'd actually scrape together enough money to go shop at Hastings was something of a treat. I bought my holiday gifts there, because in my early 20s, that's what you did. I loved getting gifts from  there.

By the time I was out of college, the stores had expanded and gotten even larger. More books, more esoteric, more music. You could find toys related to geekery and tons of comics, even independent ones. During the stress of grad school and as the disappointments of my late 20s happened, it was a refuge. It was a place where I could escape and just look at beautiful things.

Now it's closing. Admittedly, I've not been there in years. My health declined to the point that going into stores like Hastings became too difficult. My financed declined to where I couldn't just toss money at a book or an album when I wanted to. I know this happened to a lot of people. Online shopping became easier. We had to walk away.

When I was a kid and I thought about getting old, I always assumed that the hardest part would be health related. That part isn't fun, no, but it isn't the worst aspect of aging. I never anticipated how often I would mourn as I aged. I never thought about how all the details, all the puzzle pieces that fit together to weave the foundations of my younger years would decay and fall apart. I suppose I should have, but when you're young, you assume the things you love will always be there.

I know I've discussed this before and I know I probably will again. Losing the foundations seems to be a reoccurring theme of my life now. As always, what happens in my life goes into the blog.