Fall of the Dork Realms · 1:01am May 14th, 2017
I don't usually use this site as a venue for personal matters, but today...
Well, today I'm going to do what I usually do around here. Today, I'm going to tell you all a story.
Once upon a time, there was a strip mall. It was a particularly New Jerseyian strip mall, containing a Chinese restaurant, a bagel store, and an Italian restaurant/pizzeria, thus covering most major food groups. And on the far right end was a store called the Gamer's Realm.
The Gamer's Realm was a paradise for people who preferred other realities to this one. Its shelves contained countless strategic board, card, and dice games, along with decades of RPG sourcebooks. Several tables stood dedicated to wargames, with racks of Warhammer minis, paints, and codices. A quartet of PCs stood ready for online gaming. And, of course, there were plentiful Magic cards to be had, in packs or individually, from the ten-cent commons bin to valuable bygone cards kept behind glass like jewelry. (Appropriate, given how there were a few Moxen among them.)
You may have noticed the heavy use of the past tense there. If nothing else, you may have noticed the rather grim blog title. I think you know where this is headed.
The Gamer's Realm, where I have been buying Magic cards for more than half my life, where I played in my very first draft tournament and countless other events since, where I have forged friendships and rivalries, closes its doors for the last time this coming Tuesday.
They announced this on Facebook. I don't use Facebook, which means that I heard the news shortly before we began drafting. A line from "Forever Filly" comes to mind: "The last time we did all of those things together, I... I didn't realize it was going to be the last last time."
Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I'll be visiting my grandmother, my sole living grandparent. She's not in terribly good shape after a stroke, and I likely won't have many more Mother's Days with her. Remember to treasure what you have, ladies and gentlemen, whether its a hobby, a loved one, or an online community based around a cartoon. Everything ends, and some things end suddenly. When you have no control over its longevity, the best course of action is to enjoy every moment that you can.
Yes, a game store closing got me thinking about mortality and the finite nature of existence. As I said, I've been going there for more than half my life. A brick just got torn out of my life's foundation. I wrote this blog to help get my thoughts in order, and I think it helped. Thank you to anyone who read this far. If no one did, well, I still put up my own little bizarre memorial for that particular brick.
I had something sudden happen not too long ago at the end of 2015. I cannot help but think "Never, never pass up an opportunity to tell your family and loved ones "I love you" or ignore a chance to hug your friends."
That is the pain of growing old. What is common and familiar passes, leaving us with the strange and the new. As we grow older, it becomes harder and harder to deal with the strange and the new. There might be other gaming stores you will find, but they will never be the same. They might even make you happy, but they will never have the sweet perfume of nostalgia to sweeten the experience.
Ultimately, one of the focuses of life is how to deal with these transitions. More will come. They're not all bad.
The number of funerals I attended almost reached double digits before my age did.
While perhaps not the most accurate scene to use for your situation, I can't help but feel this to be somewhat fitting, if oddly so:
*hugs*
I'm probably just drunk, but this hit me hard. Hope your grandmother has a few more years left in her.
I saw the topic of Magic cards and grandmothers, and my mind jumped to somewhere it should not have.
"Happy Mother's day, Grandma. I got you a special edition foil Moxen..."
I read, endings suck.
Hope you can find another place.
Oh man, it feels like there's been a lot of this going around lately. I recently found out that a bunch of murals in my hometown that I loved got painted over a few years ago and had a similar reaction.
This has been happening at a lot of malls and strip malls I have noticed. Particularly niche stores which often require deeper pockets to shop at. I remember being devastated when the Fashion Mall at Keystone at the Crossing over here shut down.
A new one opened up at a nearby strip mall, but it has maybe half as much merchandise, and no real room for game playing now.
Still, I wonder if things will start picking up in the near future. I feel like malls are on the way out, as online shopping encroaches on them, but the large stores like Macy's might still be pulling in money from smaller specialty stores while they still exist. Once they are gone, the market for smaller stores might expand again.
Life's funny like that.
The human mind, too.
Connecting such things
Is what people do.
Hope this confluence of connections helps you form more happy memories. Good luck!
My condolences. May your grandmother remain hale and hearty for many years to come.
Having seen an increasingly frightening number of hobby shops close around my city over the past couple of years, I feel deeply sorry for your loss, Foamy.
The destructive side of creative destruction. It is always sad when friends must part.
Yeah, I've lost relatives to strokes. Enjoy the time you have with her, and hope it lasts. That's all the advice I can give.
"HUGS YOU"
If you need to talk, I'm here for you.
Man I'm sorry. The mention of Forever Filly is spot on; sometimes the sting of things going away wouldn't be so bad if you just knew it was going to be the last time. Like I don't clearly remember the last time I paid a visit to my FLGS from when I was growing up, but then I went to visit my parents at some point after college and it was just gone, and it was like... something was just missing, and nothing could quite take its place.
I hope you find another place soon. The FLGS is uniquely peaceful, is it not? Like I'm out "grocery shopping" right now but I swung by the current FLGS for a few to grab a soda, look at stuff, and just relax from the craziness of stuff for a bit.
Maybe this is what people get from going to the bar.
I think I got more of this from church too before kids, because now just getting there is a struggle unto itself.
Hugs.
A brick from your life's foundation is still a brick from your life's foundations, no matter if it's store or human-shaped. Take care!