On Borders (The Store)

by Doug

This week, Borders announced that 200 of their stores will be shutting down, which is about 30 percent of all their stores. This is so they restructure their business after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Among the stores closing is the one in my town.

This is especially sad for me, as that store, and the people that worked there, helped me out during my first few years of fatherhood.

As I talked about last week, it was hard to get work done when Brady was born because, well, infants are high maintenance. Combined with the cabin fever I was starting to develop after a while, I really needed to get out of the house once in a while.

So, on the days that Stacey could watch Brady, I went out to work. Now, Logan, Utah had been growing quite rapidly, but was still a pretty small town. There weren't many places to just sit and work. However, just as I needed to find a place to work, a Borders store was built.

Good timing, right?

So, I found my corner of the Borders cafe, and did my work. Sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes for a whole day. And as I worked there, I slowly became friends with the crew working there. Hey, when you show up frequently enough, scribbling away on a laptop and Wacom tablet, you get noticed after a while. They'd ask about my work, and my family. They'd become good friends with me, Stacey, and especially Brady (one thing about my daughter, she has the kind of personality that makes it very hard to ever forget her).

Hell, we celebrated my 30th birthday with many of the employees there.

Going to Borders also kept my social skills somewhat sharp, as it allowed me to have adult conversations once in a while. I didn't realize losing the ability to have adult non-baby conversations could happen as you become a parent. In a way it makes sense; when you're inundated with all things baby 24/7, the Stockholm Syndrome effect that kicks in. You subconsciously become as infatuated with the stuff as your infant is. And soon, that's all you talk about.

So yeah, having the ability to talk to adults about adult things was nice. Especially when you consider that Stacey and I had only been in Utah for two years, had no family nearby, and not many friends yet. Now, because of the friendships I was forming with the folks at Borders, I could go in and talk about topics that didn't include The Wiggles, or Baby Einstein (though they were obviously a great source to get those DVDs).

As years progressed (and Brady got older), it became easier (and cheaper) for me to work at home again. But as far as I was concerned, Borders was still my office away from home.

Tonight, they're closing the cafe for the last time. Three guesses as to who will be there to help them close it down.