recession hits the south end!!
Like Dylan’s songs says — and the South End believes — when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. So naturally we figured we were totally immune to the ravages of the Great Recession. No jobs, no layoffs…. No hopes, no disappointment…. No woman, no cry….. Hellfire, we’re practically an ascetic Zen monastery down here, one hand clapping.
And then the Unthinkable happened. Tyee Store is about to close its doors. I’ve lived here since 1977 and except for a Christmas or two, Tyee Store was OPEN, rain, shine, hell or high water. From the Snowdens, who built the original store back in the Dark Ages, to the Bartletts who made it the economic juggernaut of the South End, to Helen and Don who retired the E-coli dog rotisserie in favor of homemade Texas BBQ sandwiches, the store has been a Permanent Fixture, an icon of the South End Way, a testament that money can still be made the old fashioned way. No, not hard work. By selling cigarettes and alcohol and lotto. Tyee was the prototype for every 7-11, Quicki Mart, Stop N Shop, Kwik Stop convenience store in America. Their motto — Fast is Worth More – spread faster than the Bird Flu Pandemic of 2008.
Somewhere in the Heartland, the original Golden Arches still stands, a living monument to American genius in slick advertisement, assembly line cuisine and tasty non-nutritious fare served on a white bread bun in a white Styrofoam take-out container that is easily tossed from another American icon, the very large gas guzzling automobile.
Tyee Store, soon to be shuttered, OPEN neon dark, outhouse next door locked, will stand as mute testament to that era of the South End when we didn’t need no stinking permits, we didn’t need fresh vegetables, we smoked what we wanted when we wanted, we considered Lotto our only necessary 401-K and we all knew, every man woman and child of us, where to go to get it. If they didn’t have it, we didn’t need it. Sure it cost a little more. That was the Tyee Store.
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