Listen to Jim: http://www.jimreedbooks.com/mp3/PortersArehouse.mp3 or read on…
Driving in from a dreaded trip into the bowels of the ‘burbs is worth every moment, once I arrive in the Southside/Downtown world I inhabit.
It’s comforting to see the sights many suburbanites will never enjoy:
1. An enormous sign: PORTERS AREHOUSE. Only we living ghosts of Downtown would know that this is the abandoned establishment once known as Importers Warehouse, now weather-sheared of some of its former identity.
2. The California Fashion Mall, which is a story unto itself (listen to my long-ago comments about that): http://www.jimreedbooks.com/audio/christmas/1/track10.asx
3. The haunting memory of long sterile rows of neatly regimented books in lock-step passionless order at an emporium I saw a few months ago. Can’t wait to get back to Reed Books/The Museum of Fond Memories, my homage to the way books ought to be treated: since each book is its author personified, I’ve always assumed that few authors would like it if we lined them up and forced them to stand at attention under cold fluorescent lights, bereft of any of the comforts near which they wrote their stories—such as the blankies and favorite chairs and tasty snacks and window-views and neighborhood sounds that provided a solid pedestal for their work. My shop is arranged so as not to insult book or author or customer with regimentation. Joy is everywhere in this little world! The merry confusion of Reed Books is part of my gift to you.
4. Stopping by my 1906 home, then driving to the 1890 building housing Reed Books, is a ritual and a privilege. These buildings are the center of my little world, and I love it when you visit. Come see things you’ll never experience in the ‘burbs, take home a memory, a memory you can use as seedling for spreading the gospel of Old Things and the wonderful feelings they evoke in people. Drop by and I’ll show you a few.
5. Since Christmas comes but once a day in my world, pick a day and come in. See what this season can be all about in a dreamworld more realistic than anything you’ll find Out There
Jim Reed
(c) 2011 A.D.