Gone but Not Forgotten

Ha! Nabbed him. See my hubby hiding his Circus Animal cookies from the children? We almost never stock boughten cookies here, but these Mother's Cookies were this Daddy's favorite from his childhood. We always bought him a bag for his birthday, Christmas and Father's Day. It's so sad to see this company going the way of all things. I mean, it's not the end of the world, but it's sad.

It's also a pity to see Linens n Things going belly up. We don't actually shop there in the normal course of events, but had a great experience with them, returning our malfunctioning Cuisinart coffeepot. It was two or three years old, we didn't have the box or the receipt, but they exchanged it for a new one, no questions asked. Service with a smile. We were flabbergasted. Sorry to see them filing bankruptcy.

We're also sorry Mervyns appears to be going out of business. We only shopped their sales, but their sales were good ones!

And we can't believe Circuit City is closing its doors. We always liked them better than their competitors. Maybe these folks can pull their derriere out of the fire, but it's not looking good.

And Bennigan's doors shutting has us shedding a tear of reminiscence. We frequented the Bennigans near our college when my husband and I were dating. We would share their potato skins appetizer and endless glasses of Dr. Pepper. At the beginning of the month, I would treat; at the end of the month, when my money was all gone, I would be treated. Those were the days.

Just happy memories now.

My husband says that, regardless of the times, people go out of business. Remember Woolworth's, Montgomery Wards, Cub Foods? All gone some time back.

But we went on living without them. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?

As America finds the need to tighten its collective belt, I'm betting it'll come to some stunning realizations. In a nutshell, that: Americans will survive just fine without Bennigans and Circuit City, and even Mother's brand cookies. We may even do just fine without a $4 Starbucks cup of coffee, the newest expensive technogadgets, and an expensive family vacation. It's even possible that we'll figure out that homemade really is way better than fast food and that playing pinochle or Candyland around the kitchen table is more fun than spending $12 a ticket to go to a movie and $5 a bucket to eat popcorn.

We're already finding out that cutting back on our gas consumption has resulted in the happy result of cheaper gas. I hope we're primed and ready to learn all the good lessons of prudent habits. Let's face it, we really have been fat and happy and lazy and irresponsible as a nation.

It's appropriate that we've had our cookies taken away. Now if we can only learn from the punishment.