Population 5000 + one big fat stinkin' Walmart

Article in The Napanee Beaver

One may believe that given my love of the whorehouse Walmart I would be delighted that they opened one up in my old town...not so. I shouldn't really care, given that hell will most definitely freeze over before I'd live there again, but a small part of me knows that this means the total obliteration of the downtown area (yes, Napanee has a downtown area.) It's not just about Napanee though; it's about all the skeezy-outdoor-plaza-thingys that seems to be replicating faster than tribbles. It all started with Tim Hortons moving into town, and the re-locating of Giant Tiger from downtown to a bigger place "uptown." (Colossal Tiger?) Before that there was a mall (AKA. Small Mall or the Not Really A Mall, Mall) with an A&P inside, a McDonalds, Canadian Tire, Beaver Lumber and a um, farm. (And I'm only talking about chain stores). In the uptown area since then a Wendy's, Dairy Queen & KFC have opened, A&P has separated from the mall and a No Frills has taken it's place, Beaver Lumber turned into Home Hardware, a big fancy new arena has been built and the mall has self-destructed. Ka-boom! Stores that have closed downtown include Bi-way, Head's Video (the best selection of horror movies ever), Lipsons (a very old clothing store), probably the health food store I loved as a teenager, Dixie Lee, Big-O's (donuts, although I never questioned the name when I was younger…) and who knows what else (because any time I've driven though the town since I don't actually get out of the car for fear of seeing people I know. I have however, heard that another Tim Hortons opened up somewhere downtown as well as some other new stores to keep people going. It probably sounds lame, but that was my Saturday entertainment when I was younger – going shopping downtown with my mom. (No wonder we do the same thing in Toronto)

For your amusement (and mine) here's a map of Napanee...



And if you're interested in my article on Purim it's here, along with a flyer I did for the Carnival.