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| Photo via http://www.ladowntownnews.com |
Requiem for a bookstore: Caravan writes its final chapter. | "Things in the Financial District shop are similar to how they have been most days for the past 64 years: Customers slowly meander around the tables and shelves stacked high with first editions and rare tomes. The general sense of quiet is punctuated every few minutes by the tick-tick-tick of a receipt printing." Article link.
On one hand I celebrate the owner and his beautiful perspective and commitment and character - and then I try to think of the time he's earned to be retired and have more free hours in his life.... but still these losses are just so final. This shop - these types of places - are irreplaceable. If you have such treasures near you, go visit them today. Take your kids and explain what makes them the brilliant lights in an otherwise monochrome world, share their existence with your friends because when they are gone we will have lost a piece of our souls.
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| Photo via http://www.ladowntownnews.com |
"Caravan moved to its current location on the opposite corner in 1980. At the time, the bookselling business was a thriving industry in Downtown Los Angeles. Leonard Bernstein fondly looks back on the era; he rattles off the name of a soda shop and an Italian deli he used to frequent around the corner, and talks warmly of the people who ran the businesses. Bernstein took over the store in the 1980s and has been behind the counter ever since. His son and two daughters have helped out over the years, but they have their own careers and didn’t want to take over, Bernstein said." Article link.
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| Photo via http://www.ladowntownnews.com |
More than ever, especially after reading something like this, I know we must fight for the independent businesses we love. While this closure came to be due to retirement there are countless other small mom and pop shops struggling to keep the doors open. Choices - yours; mine; ours; they may be the only thing which keeps them around. Please, support the places and people you love.
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