Remember the ad for Reeses Pieces in the 90’s where they poked a perfect hole in the middle? Nearly every day after school in the 5th grade, I went to the Barnard General Store, 50 cents in hand, and got myself a pack. Turns out, it isn’t that tricky to do, but I got hooked to the ritual of Tess, my dependable and kind bus driver, dropping me off at the store while she headed up her Stage Rd. route, buying my Reeses and then sitting by Silver Lake or the benches under the awning . I’d poke holes while I waited for her to pick us back up and head home to Mt. Hunger.
I started remembering this Reeses Pieces ritual when I saw that the BGS would be closing it’s doors tomorrow, May 8th. It has had many owners in its 180 years, but for the last 20 years our good friends have poured ALL OF THEIR TIME into that store. Running small businesses, especially ones so easily affected by tourist seasons & the weather, is exhaustive and I totally get it. Totally. These last few days as I have been very specifically letting my brain drift back, I have found myself actually letting go, from my furiously busy and somewhat chaotic life, to relive them. I wish I could bottle up my childhood and sniff it. That’s how good it was. These are 3 more of them. They are not especially eloquent but they are mine.
1. We moved to Barnard when I was 8. We lived a couple miles from the BGS on a dirt road. Honestly, it felt much longer than 2 miles when I was 8. During the summers, my brother and I would gather any money we could scrounge up and head out to the store on our bikes. The ride up Mt. Hunger was long and steep. Once we made it up the up we simply needed to get past the dog that furiously chased everything (I was convinced it would be bite my feet off) and we were home free. It was a quick ride to the bottom of the road where we hit pavement and another steep climb up Route 12 to the store. We were motivated by the thought of cream cicles, blowpops, airheads, lemonheads, tootsiepops, and Snapples to name just a few. The combinations of treats was always different depending on how much change we could find.
2. In 5th grade, one of the teachers at school took me to the BGS for lunch as a treat for achieving some goal. I remember leaving school and walking down the hill and being thrilled for the outing. I sat up on the swivel stool and looked into the big mirror and thought hard about what I wanted. I am pretty sure it was winter and I got an ice cream-Maple Walnut.
3. I worked at the BGS off and on for a bit when I was 15 or 16. I was actually filling in for my brother who was their full-time employee but he had football practices so I helped out. I remember come lunch time, there would be a long line at the sandwich counter and Kim and I would pump out sandwiches; we were sandwich making machine. Then I’d make myself one and head out the lake for a break. That’s when I decided a few strands of red onion made a sandwich taste fancy.
These are three from, literarily, hand fulls of moments passing in and out of my brain the last few days. It was important to me that my kids, even though very small, spend a few moments at the BGS so we went up the other morning to swivel on the stools and wander the worn wood floors. I wanted to take some pictures, for me, which you can see here. My son was noisy, my daughter was a bit fussy and I haven’t spent much time there in the past 10 years but it felt, and this will absolutely sound cheesy, like home. I gave big hugs to our friends and told them how glad I was for the respite they were going to soon have but what an incredible place and space they had curated and sustained the last 20 years.
I could now go on about how I have known Kim since I was 8 and she was the aid at my school and hung out with us every recess with her clay coffee mugs but this wasn’t meant to be that long. That’s how memories go huh? They weave in and out of each other, connecting one thing to the next, until you step back and you’ve remembered your way back to today.
