It may be Time to Fold Up the Tent

Bobby Tony
January 10, 2019

   Thomas Wolfe is famous in part for a book published posthumously in 1940: You Can't Go Home Again. I am slowly coming to grips with that fact as I watch old friends, acquaintances and companies Fold Up their Tent and go home (or wherever if you wish).

   I read with some sadness recently that my old dream store has finally decided to 'FUTT.'  Sears Holding, formerly known as Sears and before that Sears Roebuck has filed for liquidation after a 133 year camping trip in mine and other people's lives.  Sears was more than a store, it was a dream factory for many kids who would browse through the Sears Wish Book and try to decide what to ask Santa to bring for their Christmas present.

   I was fortunate to have lived very close to the major store in Atlanta which was located on Ponce De Leon across from what was formerly the Cracker Ball minor league park; but that is a story from another article. See that article here How I became a Georgia Cracker.  That building was huge since it served as the Southeast warehouse as well as retail store.

   As I mentioned in the Cracker Article above, I could ride there on my bike.  At one time you could get almost anything you wanted from Sears including bicycles, cars, houses and almost anything that one could imagine.  One year for Christmas, my 15 year old brother received a Piaggio Scooter and side car purchased from the Sears Catalog. Some people may remember it as a Vespa.  I suspect some of the readers may be thinking, "Wow you must have been rich!"  I assure you, we were not.  The scooter served the dual purpose of allowing my brother to get a bigger Paper Route as well serving as local transportation for my Dad on local trips. My Dad was a very practical man. He was not prone to buying frivolous toys.

   One of my most indelible memories was a lesson my dad taught me while working in his basement workshop. Whenever we were working on a project that required a special tool that Dad could not fabricate or adapt from his inventory. We would stop what we were doing and drive the 2 miles to Sears to pick up the tool.  Dad would always say, "You never know when you will need that tool again!"  Like most boys, that is when I fell in love with tools, and hardware stores and Sears Craftsman tools were at the top of my list and became the standard Christmas present for my now 37 year old son.

   It appears that Sears could survive this last brush with death, but its future will be nowhere near it's past. For a company that stared in the Catalog (on line by phone if you will) business, it has been the victim of poor management for years and the last Chairman Eddie Lampert is nothing more than a buzzard pecking at the carcass of a once great brand. I am not so naive as to think that the Creative Destruction of Capitalism is always progress.  It is my belief that most companies fail due to a lack of Vision and Execution by management.

   The Sears building sat vacant for a long time and was then purchased by the City of Atlanta and became the City Hall East. It's last incarnation is a revived City Market with a new name Ponce City Market which is has been a very successful rebirth and not doubt many memories being made by the current crop of kids.

   Regardless of the final outcome, I will probably go to my grave with memories of that big old store on Ponce De Leon (sans the Spanish flair, please).  I wonder if they ever sold caskets?

References used in this Article:

https://www.ajc.com/business/sears-gets-another-reprieve-from-liquidation/aygq4O0CwU2DOvT8LC5TWK/

You Can't Go Home Again

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Lampert

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears

https://poncecitymarket.com/

https://beaufortcountynow.com/post/22078/how-i-became-a-georgia-cracker.html