Borders Demise

I heard it on the news.  I read it in the postings of Yahoo.  Borders will soon join those businesses that do not survive this last recession.   This is not a good day when a business like Borders falls by the wayside.  I'm quite sadden by the news.  Yet I can say for myself that I always have been a supporter of all bookstores.  Proof of that lies downstairs in my basement, as well as upstairs where my shelves overflow with books on pretty much every subject, most of which come from Borders or Barnes and Noble.

Borders was a place to go where one could enter any world and all worlds.

Just now on the eleven o'clock news they are announcing a Border's closing--the one near Westfarms Mall.

For most of us this is the end of an era.

For me it now becomes one more memory adding to my memories of people and things who no longer occupy my life, namely my late husband, my parents, my in-laws.

Summers were always special for me and my family especially with my late husband who was off during summer months from his teaching job.  Summers meant not only taking trips to various shorelines, or places of interests, but also spending quiet afternoons and some evenings in places like a Borders.

One of the special things we'd do on a Saturday or Sunday was to first go out to breakfast to a diner that made great blueberry pancakes.  Then we'd spend a few hours at a casino, usually Foxwoods.  (I haven't been to Foxwoods since July 5, 2002.  I have been to a Borders. )

Afterward we'd enjoy a nice lunch at either the buffet or one of the local inside restaurants at Foxwoods and then we'd call it a day and leave.  On the way home we would stop either at a Barnes and Noble or a Borders Music and Books.  There we'd enjoy a snack, and browse through the store.  I do know I never left either of those stores without purchasing a few books.

After my husband passed on I found myself at Borders several times a week, spending hours in the store, mainly to give my mind a rest from the grieving process and also to focus on writing my stories.  Somehow the browsing always inspired me.  I'd find myself hurrying home to work on a story I had already started, or start a new one.   I had gotten to the point where I knew where just about every subject could be located within a Borders, even at times helping other customers like myself  find what they were looking for. 

Writing is such a lonely endeavor.  I don't have to tell any writer what that is like.  Interaction over the internet is never quite the same.  Places like Borders gave me a place to go where I could be surrounded by not only the books I love but by people who shared the same emotion toward books.

Places like Borders was my home away from home, and more often than not going to a Borders gave me a place of solace that I sought and needed, as well as reprieve from some of the emotional turmoil that originated with the death of my loved ones.

An empty Borders building is quite depressing to say the least.  I came upon the one in Simsbury, CT.   It left a hole in my heart knowing that inside were shelves devoid of books and that what had been such an enjoyable experience would be no more.  That's when I panicked.  Was the same going to happen to the one near Westfarms Mall?   No way I thought.  Yet, I was wrong.

Okay I'm an Indie Author who never did have the chance to see any of her books on a Border's shelves.  I did what was necessary to survive as a writer by uploading stories to places like Amazon, Smashwords, Pubit (B&N). 

In this life we do what we need to do to survive.  The internet might just well be the "Beast" that changes the world.  We have yet to find out exactly what affect that's going to have on the world as a whole.  So far it's not good for bookstores. 

Unfortunately with the demise of Borders, jobs will be lost, more people out of work.  In turn this can only hurt an already sluggish, struggling economy.

As for myself, I'll keep writing my stories, creating new worlds, and look for another place to go where I can alleviate some of the loneliness that comes with the writing life.

It's all any one of us can do.

I'll go to Borders this week if just to reinforce inside my mind that yes, this is another era that will end and leave behind its memories.