The Closing Whistle

The story sneaked in, far from the Obituaries but just as crushing: The Whistle Stop is closing!

The family-run business has nestled in amongst its neighboring shops off Main Street for almost twenty years now, the unassuming bookstore bursting at the seams with titles of all sorts. Far superior to its bricks & mortar cousins Borders or Barnes and Noble, the Whistle Stop actively encourages the buying of used books and the concept of trading them in for store credit. This is a book-lover’s business plan, a true service to the community in that they have long put their love of literature above their bottom line. Take a trip to the bookstores in the surrounding area; while you’ll find some fantastic independent booksellers, there are precious few that deal so freely in used books.

As a result, a quick visit to the store usually ends up in a series of discoveries that will make you late for your next appointment if not careful. One gets easily lost amid the sprawling shelves stacked lack matches along the shelves. Better still, Bonnie Lee and her daughter, Pam Robertson, embody the best of the independent bookstore: not only can they easily answer questions as to what’s in stock (or might be soon), they are excellent resources for children rushing to find another book “just like the one I just read!”

While I can’t help thinking of the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movie You’ve Got Mail (where a major chain pushes out the smaller bookseller), Rob Varnon’s article in the Connecticut Post points out that it is a “happy retirement” rather than a forced hand that will lead to these closing doors. We can only hope that their retirement is filled with the many great books they never had a chance to read as they looked for ours.

For me, gentle melancholy turns to concern: what will become of literature in Stratford? This was our only bookstore, and we have only one town library to call our own. I’ll never forget the business meeting where we had to target our market demographics. The expert analyst quickly crossed many towns off our initial list after one passing glance at the spreadsheet before him. “These towns have under-funded libraries and few bookstores—they don’t meet our literacy level.”

It’s a chilling memory considering Stratford’s current condition. One hopes that instead of another gas station or the next Wal-Mart we’ll soon see another bookstore come into town. We need the siren call (or maybe another whistle) of literature to lure future generations into the magic of reading. In the meantime, we wish the folks at the Whistle Stop all the best in their next chapters! Read more of this observation!