Try to Remember

I remember my brother overdramatically singing this song-

Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.

As it turns out, as long as you have the faculty to remember to search for what you forgot, and the capability to do it, Can't Remember Sh--Stuff syndrome (aka growing older), is not as frustrating as it could be. Any answer you seek is just a few keystrokes away on the Net, it's practically instant recall.

I used to daydream about owning a place that sold tea and had morning sunlight filtering through windows on overstuffed armchairs in random places--kinda like Idle Time Books; little nooks where people could read or write for hours on end, and sometimes-- maybe-- there would be readings too, like at Food for Thought--(was that the name of that place in Dupont Circle, with the green awning and all the vegan and veggie options crammed in barely legible handwriting on the chalkboard behind the counter?)

 Am I remembering this correctly?

[Google 'food for thought dupont circle', press Enter. Click Images]

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am remembering correctly. Thanks to Incorrigible Curmudgeon for the photographic validation (shown right); I'm not that nuts. Obviously I still can both:

• remember to look up stuff I thought I'd forgotten or misremembered- AND 
• maneuver to do so! 

So, hey, it's all good! This seasoned woman's got the agile mind and nimble fingers of a MtnGrl.  F**tysomething is the new thirtysomething--  wait. 
What was I talking about?

Oh, yeah-

One time I was daydreaming out loud, only to be interrupted by a coworker-friend scoffing, 'How are you gonna make money?!' Good point, I had to concede, seeing as how my trust fund never existed.  Letting folks linger for hours with tea and books was not likely to be a big revenue generator.  I've been bookish for as long as I can remember, and love bookish places; libraries, bookstores.  My former husband and I used to happily spend hours and hundreds in bookstores.  I remember being pregnant and mollified by the thought a book's title suggested: having a child who doesn't like to read.


This recollection tickled me yesterday, right after I finished bellyaching about how far away  the nearest bookstore was--and the cost of gas--to my nondriving, one and only beloved youngun who'd asked to go to the bookstore.  

The nearest bookstore is so far away because there (has hardly been any in PG County, at least not in the 12 or so years I've lived here), are fewer and fewer.  Even the one we went to yesterday, in Silver Spring, was plastered with STORE CLOSING and FOR SALE signs -LAST EIGHT DAYS!  
Being in the middle of so many books at such low prices due to a store's imminent demise--really takes the kick out of it, though.    

I bought four books-- (two of which were actually on my To Read list--YOU guess which two): 

1. Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, 
2. Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?: The Net's Impact on Our Minds and Future,
3. The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down and 
4. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. 

I also got a 2012 calendar and a cuddly throw, all for $40 and change.  

Rest in Peace, Borders.

I'd like to turn a page in homage to all those that have gone before:  Crown Books, Super Crown,  Olsson's Books and Records, Karibu Books, Vertigo Books, (I *so* loved that Dupont Circle space), The Trover Shop (in neighborhood news, another Capitol Hill institution, Hawk n Dove, will soon also bite the dust) and in advance, for the Georgetown Barnes and Noble, slated to go by year's end.

Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
....
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

If you don't remember, GOOGLE IT, but you can still follow me. ;-D