Tears welled in my eyes as I walked through the 91-year old hardware store for one of the last times. The floors creaked as I pushed the babies through one of Boozle's favorite stores in Morristown. It will soon be gutted and turned most likely into another restaurant. Just what this town definitely doesn't need one more of. Moore Hardware: filled with antique tools, an old fire engine pedal car (hence, Boozle's favorite), and the nicest store owner around. Today as we bought our last purchase, I felt completely comfortable leaving my perfectly content babies with Howard, the owner, while I ran next door to get cash from the ATM to buy our rake, shovel, and umbrella. When I came back he was telling Boozle tales of his grandsons playing at the shore and asking him who his favorite Thomas engine was.
I expressed my sadness about the store closing and Howard said, "Yep. It is sad. But it's also a new beginning. The end of an era, but the beginning of things for me, too. And this is what really counts," as he pointed to the cash register. "People just do their shopping out on the highway and they just want specialty stores here in town." I then told him about how one of the reasons I love Morristown is because we can literally run our errands. Other than the post office, the double jogger fits into every store and we love to jog to pick up our diaper spray from the health shop, our books from the library, and our picture hangers from Moore's. Now we'll have to join everyone else in driving out to the highway to the big box aka local- and history-crushing stores. Sad, indeed.
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