A GREAT Story (off-topic)

[442w30]

I was walking through Manhattan the other day and passed by a used book store. I had been there before, so I was saddened to learn they were going out of business. I strolled in and went straight for the car section (lackluster), then looked around for something else of interest. In a display I saw an interesting book on typography.

Now, perhaps you don't know what typography is, but anything having to do with fonts is typography - just look at MS Word and check out all the choices besides Times New Roman or what-not. In the graphic design world, there are people who create new fonts and give them names in the hopes they are picked up by other artists.

Anyway, flipping through the book, I realized it was actually a brochure because someone's name and address was on the back, in this case CELINA LARDAPIDE.

I used to work with Celina in 2004-05. She sat next to me, and we quickly became friends because she was from Argentina and my parents originally were from there. We were pals to the extent that some people thought something funny was going on between us, although that never was the case. When I was laid off after the agency lost the client, I lost touch with her, much to my chagrin.

Then, almost a year ago in 2009, I found out accidentally that she had died in an accident in 2008 - all I know is that she may have been hit by a car while on a Vespa. She probably was 30 years old.

Anyway, I realize used book stores buy dead people's stuff, but it's still is a profound coincidence.

[Postsedan]

Wow! What Amazing Faith...thanks for sharing.

Dan.

[442w30]

It's funny, cuz I'm not a person of faith. I'm still treating it with some meaning, whatever the case may be.

Funny thing is that I didn't buy the brochure last week. I had called during the week and they could not find it, but I couldn't let this special thing get away so I stopped by a week later and found it in a pile of magazines.

I was insulted they wanted $40 for something that was free to Celina, so I wonder if they found it and marked it up with the hope I would find it later? At least their going out of business sale marked it 50% off to $20, but it's worth much more than that to me.

[mockingbird812]

Wow Diego - small world! Thanks for passing it on to us!

[427TJ]

I'll sometimes go to Powell's Books in Portland (Oregon) on airline layovers and read old books for a few hours and maybe buy a book for my library. One day I was reading an early 1960s book on the history of the Model T and the book was inscribed,

"To (name forgotten), Christmas 1964, I hope this book brings you hours of joy in the years to come. Love, Mom and Dad."

It suddenly hit me that the person to whom the book was inscribed was probably dead and that many of the used books in Powell's, a huge place, had once been in someone's home library and had captured their interest, at least for some perioid of time. I imagined the son, 45 years earlier, tearing the Christmas wrapping paper off of the Model T book and excitedly seeing it and saying it was the book he had asked for. I looked around and felt like I was in an orphanage with all those old books slowly getting older. I looked through more books and found a few more inscriptions and I could just imagine where each book's original owner might be now. Yeah, weird. I've been to Powell's once since that day and I felt very different when I walked in and saw all the used books. Ghosts of the past.

[htweelz]

Sometimes the stories behind items like these are more exciting than the actual item.