Christmas Eve, Chris and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and make the pilgrimage to Edaville Railroad in Carver MA and in the course of the 2.5 hour drive I think I heard variations on the term "difficult economic times" approximately every 45 seconds. Still, nothing brings it home like a store you walk by almost every day suddenly going out of business.
New Civilitea on Derby Street in Salem send out an email blast last night stating that it would be shutting its doors on New Years Eve for good. (Except for a brief inventory sale)
I tried to stick to my guns this year, and only shop in Salem,but if I had to get something and was certain that I could only find it at the mall then I'd get behind the wheel. I tried it couple of times but it was so depressing that I came home before I was done and spent the rest of the evening worried I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Picture a recently laid-off car salesman launching into an obscenity-laced tirade on his cell phone next to a long line of exhausted kids strung out on candy canes waiting to see Santa while some food-court queen storms out of Belden's Jewelers screaming at her boyfriend that she's really going to get that restraining order "this time" and you get the idea.
Shopping in Salem is actually fun. Most of the stores are staffed by the business owner and/or their family and it's almost like shopping in some country where it's traditional to welcome a customer like a long-lost relative. People discuss their vacation plans with you while they ring up your items and then ask if you are related to someone they know when they see the name on your debit card. I actually had a Hallmark Movie moment when I had driven to three different chain stores in a quest for a real christmas tree stand and been told by three different sad-looking men with Santa hats and nametags that they were sold out. I noticed a little garden store on 107 called Highland Gardens and not only did they have tree stands in spades, but a life-sized animatronic Santa that actually wasn't as creepy as it sounds.
Just to make conversation while my card was being approved, I asked if they were open year round and next thing I knew, the owner was proudly describing her part-time geneaology business followed by a brief rundown of her family history back to the Mayflower. I almost expected her to whip out a PowerPoint presentation. I had been stressing out over what to get my mother for Christmas and as she talked on, she reminded me of the way my mother could go on about her family for hours if you let her. I realized that the only thing holding her back from the book she was always hinting about was the fact that she didn't have a computer to type it into. So I did the "Gift Ticket" thing and promised to transcribe her stories that she would write up and add family photographs.
Despite the crappy weather and trying to complete three projects at once for various clients, I did manage to get out and get some last minute shopping done the day after Christmas and since my dad's a tea freak, I stopped into New Civilitea and found his entire gift there. I even grabbed one of their cards to put into a tin of color-coded tea-timers since he comes up here quite a bit. Maybe the spartan appearance of the store should have tipped me off, but it always looked really spare which is why I liked it in the first place. Once you become so surgically attached to a large Graco stroller that your friends don't recognize you without it, it tends to limit your shopping to places that can accommodate its wide displacement. This ruled out stores with narrow aisles crammed with tchotchkes. So, I'll miss this store and my 2009 resolution is to keep buying as local as I can so I don't get any more of those depressing emails.
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