by Jas Faulkner
Many years ago, the University of Memphis* announced they would be temporarily closing the student store they ran in the basement of the UC so they could retool it. Many of us could not see anything good coming from this. As young as we were , we still hated change. Aside from the textbooks and other required items for classes that occupied the back right corner of the space, there was a section for MSU swag, the equivalent of a small convenience store, a smallish card and gift shop, an impressive art supply section and what amounted to a miniature version of an 80s’ vintage mall bookshop, only better. It might have been clunky, but that permutation was fine and dandy by us.
Actually, that wasn’t quite the case. In truth, no one was too terribly concerned about the possible loss of an on-campus place to meet all of our our Doritos and Tigers shot glass needs. We were quite worried about losing our bookstore. No, not the one with all of the ugly, only slightly useful tomes covered in “used” stickers. The shelves in the front half of the store held the books we wanted to read and keep. There were collections of classics in every discipline represented at the university. For many of us who were away from home for the first time, it was a chance to begin building our own libraries. Those of us who had grown up with rooms full of books wanted shelves of our own that represented who we were or at least who we thought we were. We walked by the windowed half of the basement of the UC as the staff began to prepare for the temporary closing.
