My sophomore year in college, I took a film class at Hampshire, and as part of the class, we were required to keep a “film journal.” I picked up a journal at Hastings in Amherst to use as my journal, and before long, I’d started writing a little something about each film I saw. That was 1994, and I’m now about to finish up my eleventh film journal. My sense of nostalgia encouraged me to let my somewhat frequent trips to Amherst coincide with my need for a new film journal, so I could pick one up at Hastings (as well as some Antonio’s, some ice cream at Bart’s and so on) each year. When I moved to Cambridge, I was happy to find a kindred office supply store in Bob Slate on Mass. Ave., where I found my beloved National Brand 43571 Chemistry Notebook (a notebook beloved by others as well).
Two weeks ago, as Aimee and I visited Amherst, I thought I’d buy another notebook as I’m nearing the end of my current volume. Hastings had replaced the notebook with a flimsy, flexible notepad in weird colors; whatever it was, it wasn’t the same.
This morning, I decided I’d go by Bob Slate and pick up one, or maybe even two or three just to make sure. Lo and behold, as I found the shelf that used to house the notebooks, a purple (purple?!) impostor with the same product number was in their place. It was a “National Brand” notebook, but was bound and covered differently than the original. And in bright purple, no less. I spoke with the guys at the back and they confirmed that indeed, the item I was looking for was gone, never to return, and had been gone for eight months. Apparently the company had been sold to a Canadian company, and they had re-designed the product. Disastre!
I immediately went online to check out my options, and found a number of places still stocking the item – though I couldn’t be sure, perhaps they’ve got the old item online and the new one in their warehouse. I finally spoke with someone who called her warehouse to confirm the item, and I promptly ordered 25 of them. Kind of crazy, I know, but what’s even weirder is the fact that I had a hard time deciding how many to buy. Will I only be doing this for another 25 years? They will certainly be unavailable in 25 years, so why did I not buy 50 more? Do I want to carry around or store x number of blank journals for the next 25 years? I don’t know. Anyway, I bought in bulk, and I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten the one I need. I’ll be ready to make a switch to a new kind of journal in 25 years, I think.
