Memories

Today marks the one year anniversary of the last day of Borders 0647, Middletown, NY.   A large group of us consisting of current and former employees reunited to spend a few final moments in the store and to remember and celebrate all the great times we had.  The meet-up looked a little like this...



Like Lou Grant treasured the staff at WJM, we truly treasured each other.  We even worked with a couple of knuckleads like Ted Baxter!  As our blog's welcome statement says, "Borders was more than a job for us - it was a way of life and a family..."  Fortunately, just like Mary and her friends, we learned that moment wasn't the end but the beginning.  We have this lovely blog and most of us meet up once a month.  I am truly blessed, as I am sure my colleagues will agree, to have made true life long friends from our time together at Borders.  Regardless, we miss our Borders days terribly.  Rebecca T., made this lovely video that makes me teary every time I watch it.



That video highlights some of the great times we had together.  I gathered up the gang on Facebook to show some more of our favorite memories with you.

Our last schedule, with our name badge remnants

Alan enjoyed the "zombies vs. unicorns" debate.  Meanwhile we all still chuckle when ever we think of Alan's closing announcements when he would put on his best "Terminator" voice and inform customers that the store would be closing soon and they better "get to the choppa..."

Jess P. has "so many awesome memories...Jenn, I always loved our GH/AMC recaps.  It was funny when customers and/or staff overheard us! Also I think it was the DVD release for 'Twilight' or 'New Moon' when we had the Twilight movie awards and all Jenn N kept saying was "sparkles!" in a sing songy voice. Finally there was the time I caught [a shoplifter] and saved close to $700 from walking out of the store....The most bittersweet moment to me was doing the final walkthrough of the store, and shutting the lights off. It was more than a store to me, it was my home away from home..." 

I remember the Twilight parties fondly as well.  We had two, one for the release of the novel "Eclipse," and another for one of the DVDs.  Corporate had sent us a packet of instructions as to what games we should lead our customers in.  The packet kept using the word sparkle, as the vampires sparkle.  For some reason, I thought of Oprah and how she'd introduce the Cullens. It'd go something like, "Let's bring out the Cullens, they SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARKLE!!"  .a' know excited she'd get that is where the sing-songy thing Jess mentions came from, lol,

My little impressions must've been a hit because Melanie's favorite moment was " Jenn's Adrienne Curry and Christopher Knight impersonation."  Melanie couldn't always catch the reality show, "My Fair Brady," so I would reenact scenes from it rather than just tell her because it was just too much fun.  

Rachel and I had some great times together too.  I was pleased to hear one of my favorite moments was hers too.  She loved, "Screaming 'MO WILLEMS YOU A WEREPANTHER' with Jenn, or any other time Jenn and I talked about 'True Blood'."  She also loved anytime our favorite customer brought us pastries, making borders party mixes and having said mixes banned from the overhead, javanilla shakes, cocoa trio sauce, RPL, staff picks. I miss it all."



I apologize to Mo Willems for calling him a werepanther but this memory occurred during the werepanther season of True Blood and we had a little misunderstanding about Mr. Willems during BEA and this joke began.  Rachel also neglected to mention that her impressions of "True Blood," characters in particular her impression of Tara Thorton could make me laugh so hard that it was hard to breathe.

Mallory, like Melanie, was with me when we first opened Borders in October 2005.  Mallory's favorite memory is singing a little song with me while we worked.  We had been instructed to tape these security tags, known as chicklets, onto CDs and DVDs.   I started singing "tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape you chicklet..." to the tune of "Shake Your Booty."  She also fondly remembers "info parties," which is the term the managers used when too many of us hang out by the info desk chatting.  

Rebecca T., remembers "I loved all of the release parties that we did - particularly Breaking Dawn because Claire and I were in charge and we just threw our whole selves into it and we had all the tape all over the floor and Larry went and bought a tux t-shirt on his break so he would fit in with the "prom" theme. Also, this one is for Claire Bear - 'Hey LADY!' and when we went out to the diner for break on one of our overnights. Walking up to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch and gabbing about anything and everything in the break room."  

As for me, I cherish the fact that I was a part of so many of my colleagues memories.  I loved all of those moments too.  I loved talking about soaps with Jess P.   I can still crack her up with my impression of Crystal from "All My Children."  Rachel is one of my favorite people to discuss "True Blood," with and Mallory and Melanie were there with me at the beginning.

I also love that we always made the best out of awkward situations.  Our ceiling flooded frequently but we just laughed and grabbed a pail and waited for the mall cops to come and agree, that there was indeed a leak.  As if we'd make that up.  Another time, there was an emergency evacuation of the mall due to some kind of problem with the smoke detectors.  We got everyone out, quickly and efficiently.  There was a brief moment of panic when we couldn't find Larry but before we knew it we were all safe in the parking lot and Larry was doing what did best-cracking jokes. 

With all these great memories, it's hard to believe we got any work done.  However we did and because we all bonded together so well, I think it made the work a lot easier.  We were truly a family and we worked together like a good family should, as a team.  I know we are all thankful for the wonderful times we shared and we'd like to thank all our customers who supported our store for all those years.  We miss you all and we miss it all. 

647 crew Past & Present