Change is in the air. But the change is weird. Students are everywhere. Richmond is busy, but where are the Shinerama kids? Curse this pandemic! What is autumn without the bellowing song of those exuberant kids glimmering charitably on our street corners?
Some things never change, though. We’ve seen three–count them, three–trucks beeping as they back away from the Talbot Street underpass. The intrepid out-of-towners think they can SLAM through it like air between raindrops.
Hopefully something resembling a normal–wait, that’s not the word–consistent life will be cultured somehow in the petri dish of our semi-locked down existence. More moments feel normal than not. Perhaps that is ignorance finally wrapping us in its warm embrace. Perhaps it is some kind of regrowth returning to the blazed trail of woe. We kicked an anti-masker out of the shop the other day with a colossal FUCK. OFF. and although he asked for an apology we did not offer one.
To this fellow: we will not patiently argue with you. However, we will respectfully deliver any book ordered from our website, and resist including in your package any obnoxious vaccine info, masking pamphlets, or gravel to be thrown tastelessly at our leaders. We will quietly set it on your doorstep without judgement. We will not allow you to “debate” in our shop with other masked customers about how masks are making us sick. Enjoy the road less traveled, in this case. We will stick to the park paths.
To our customers: We hope things find you safe, loved, and ready to make some good noise. You are probably like us, ready to get this town rolling again. And when it is time, we’ll light the jack-o-lantern in our little shop and shine like the literate gems we all are.
Take care,
with love,
Jason and Vanessa
