Ilyse and I were doing the annual toss of financial records from four
years ago and as I was browsing through the receipts from places we
shopped and ate in 2001 it amazed me how much has changed.
Topping the list, for sentimental reasons are The Struck Cafe in
Worcester where I proposed (and got a parking ticket becuase I was so
nervous I forgot to put money in the meter). It's gone now. And Spirer
Somes in Cambridge where we bought our wedding rings is now just Daniel
Spirer.
Pregnancy and Beyond in Brookline where we bought Advent bottles for
Abby and rented, well I don't need to go into that – gone. Kimberley's
Diapers is no more. They were one of the few cloth diaper delivery
services we could find and they used to drive up from the Cape to pick
up dirty diapers – what a ride back that must have been.
The place we shop the most because it's a ten minute walk from
home is Cushing Square in Belmont.. We bought tons of gifts at Sticks
and Stone and cards at The Write Source and Molly's Gifts. All three
are gone. The former owner of Sticks and Stone now works at Uncommon
Ground on Mount Auburn Street which was an empty ex-gas station in
2001. Most inconvenient for us is that the CVS on Common Street is
gone, replaced by a bigger one farther out Trapelo Road – too far for a
casual walk.
Our nearest grocery store, Star Market on Mount Auburn Street is still called the Star Market
even though it wass bought by Shaw's which was then bought by a Dutch
company, Royal Ahold. I call them Royal A-hole because as soon as they
took over the store went downhill. They got rid of the excellent
President's Choice line of products and replaced it with the crappy
Shaw's line. The produce went way down in quality. And the prices went
up so much they almost reached Bread and Circus levels.
Speaking of Bread and Circus, they were acquired by Whole Foods
which
seems to have been a good thing. Next door to Whole Foods in Alewife
was Kitchen, Etc. which had the best prices. Now we buy our kitchen
stuff at Target in the Watertown Mall, which was either an Omni
Supermarket or an empty building in 2001. That mall got a new life when
Target and Best Buy opened. Across the street the Ann and Hope is now
Home Depot which could have saved me an infinite number of trips to
Waltham as we renovating our house if it had opened a year earlier.
Other Watertown places we frequented in 2001 that no longer exist include–
Buzz, the coffee shop on School Street where I would stop
on my way to work at the Arsenal. It burned down and was replaced by the
expanded convenience store.
Movies on Video – our favorite Mom and Pop video store
where we could always find copies of the latest releases on the shelf -
guess that was the problem.
Taste of India on Bigelow Ave. We ordered from there with some
regularity simply because they were the nearest Indian restaurant. Now
we usually order from Kashish in Belmont Center which has much better
food as long as you don't tell them to make it very hot which
translates to “extreme pain.”
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