my neighborhood

  On my brisk evening walk to Polk Street (Walgreen's) searching for some new Halloween decorations and batteries, I considered the changes in recent years to my neighborhood.  Partly this has been on my mind for the announcement that the Red Devil Lounge would be closing at the end of the year.  While the Red Devil is only a venue I would visit occasionally, it was a nice club with some attractive acts (the Blasters, Lee Rocker, Susana Hoffs, Mel Martin, Big Sam and His Funky Nation, KRS-1, English Beat) but I like it because it's a club with live music that won't be offering this up anymore.

   In the last year we've lost the Lumiere Theater, while watching BarFly I climbed under seats from the back row to the front and didn't get too sticky.   Gramophone Video -which had a great selection of Noir and independent films with a terrific and sarcastic staff that we got to know well.  I was shocked when George told me that they were closing.  I knew George when he was a Double Rainbow customer but since Gramophone closed, I have not seen him once.   Gramphone's owner Marlin gave Dexter and I A's tickets to the last game of the year for 3 years in a row.  In 1998 both  the Royal and Alhambra movie theaters closed.  Although from the photo you can see that the Royal didn't have the greatest of films.  The Alhambra was a beautiful place to sit- it's a gym now.  Waste, I say.

I miss See's Candies which was right next to the Royal.  Swan's Oyster Bar is still open -it is a one of a kind family owned place. If it ever closes, a place like Swan's will be gone for good.  Brownie's Hardware is still open but has lost some of the community spirit that it once had; maybe it's the community that left Brownie's. We still have Bob's donuts (thank you) and I am certainly grateful for this.  However with the hordes of young'ens in the neighborhood on Fridays and Saturdays, Bob's is too crowded.  We have a fewmore coffee shops, many more restaurants and plenty of hipster bars and overpriced deli's. Where did the bookstores go?

 The little restaurant supply store is still in business, run by Rita (she's 90!), same old Walgreens', the cold but I know them, Big Apple grocery store (1988? ).  Oliver still misses his old favorite store, Polkadot where Johanna made him feel likea young Prince.  20 years of the Bell Tower is a good thing, and 20 years ago I saw Emmylou Harris inside watching a Braves playoff game.  Later, Megan and Allison were great buddies to Dexter.  Later, Oliver but the bonds were established and dug deep with Dexter.  The owner of the Bell, Barb is a great lady. Sad to say I'm forgetting the name of the family owned market that used to be across the street from Double Rainbow.