Listen to Jim’s podcast:
http://redclaydiary.com/
or read his story below:
Hello Young Ghost Dancers Wherever You Are
The Downtown city ghost dancers come alive only when there are wind-tunnel breezes travelling southwest to northeast on Third Avenue North.
Suddenly, each empty curbside trash container becomes an opaque-white jack-in-the-box, the plastic bags inflate, the rushing air pummels them about. They dance in place, these celebratory spirits, since they are securely anchored.
As I drive the length of Third Avenue, the Oscar Peterson jazz inside my car keeps time with the dervishes. Oscar and the ghosts make merry together, just for my personal entertainment.
Once I park next to the bookshop, I reluctantly leave the party and open the doors to customers, booklovers, collectors, tourists, readers, explorers.
Today, a young man nervously proposes to his girlfriend in the very corner of the shop where they once had their first date–a corner where people come to read old love letters and diaries written by lovers long gone. Pre-arranged photographers come out of hiding and record the event among titters and giggles and broad smiles and suppressed tears. The visitors leave happy. Perhaps they will return on their first anniversary.
I wonder whether the dancing street ghosts will throw rice.
Later, another couple arrives, followed by a photographer. This particular pair is engaged to be married but want pictures taken throughout the store, a tribute to their enthrallment with things old, borrowed, multi-hued, a tribute to the special aura and fragrance exuded by books and wonderful old collectibles.
Romance is in the air.
It all seems so logical. My 36-year-old shop, filled to the brim with fond memories, is being appreciated for a few minutes.
Attention is being paid.
It almost makes me feel as if the place really matters.
Long after the Museum of Fond Memories fades from the street scene, celebrating ghosts will still respond to well-placed breezes. Young lovers will still find hope in obscure places. Nostalgia buffs will continue to honor the past. Somebody somewhere will still be hoarding a real book or two and reading quietly under a comforter late at night when nobody else is paying attention.
And love notes will remain hidden for future explorers to discover
© Jim Reed 2016 A.D.