There's an old hardware store near my house that I simply adore. You can find just about anything you need there.
It looks as if the store were set up right in someone's house. You walk in through a small door and enter into a magical land of hardware merchandise.
Crammed into this small space are several narrow aisles of hardware items. The merchandise is stacked on shelves that rise right up to the ceiling. Things that don't fit on the shelves dangle around all over the place.
The wood floor creaks as you walk on it. A musty, joyful smell of hardware greets your nostrils.
Standing behind a tiny front counter the owner of the store takes pride in helping each customer find what he or she is looking for. He takes a personal interest in what customers are doing. You get the feeling he considers this store to be his one true calling in life.
People who shop at this store tend to linger longer than they would at a modern hardware store. There are too many interesting shelves to browse through. If you use your imagination, the merchandise on those shelves can be used for a thousand different purposes.
It's the type of store where strangers can easily strike up a conversation. If someone is having a conversation about a plumbing project and you know anything at all about plumbing, you might jump in and offer your advice. If someone is working on an electrical project, you could fondly reminisce about the times you accidentally set your house on fire when connecting incorrect wires.
It's the type of store where human beings can just stand around talking hardware while listening to old wooden floors creak beneath their feet. I wish every neighborhood in the country could have an old hardware store as fine as this one.
Phil Shapiro
Copyright 1995
All Rights Reserved
[This story may be freely copied and distributed for noncommercial purposes. In particular, it may be freely used for any freeeware or shareware software projects. (I'd love to see a copy of anything you make with this.)
I'd be happy to communicate with any software development companies interested in producing multimedia stories. I've written a bunch of stories that lend themselves to multimedia presentation.
Internet: pshapiro@his.com]