like last year’s mother’s day weekend, doug had to work today. so i decided to do some type of mother-daughter thing again with chaeli.
it’s been a very long time since we returned to one of my childhood haunts, silver snail, and in fact, the last time i was there was at their old, orginal location with chaeli. she was quite young at the time. the visit was also very short – not knowing how to read (or the importance of the comic book world and superheros), she wasn’t that interested in what the store had to offer.
but she’s twice the age as that last time. and she now totally gets the whole superhero universe. so, after sleeping in, stretching out with some gentle, vinyasa yoga, we drove to the library to drop up some books and pick up ones that were on hold, then drove to the subway station to take the tube downtown.
first, we stopped at mr. greenjeans for lunch where i fulfilled my craving for a light, seared, tuna sandwich (sushi grade so kept nicely rare inside). then out to the streets we went where it didn’t take long to find the new location of my beloved comic book store.
waiting for fries!
unlike the last time, chaeli was totally mesmerized. she went right to the newly released section and started to flip through a comic book right away. i took a photo of her (below) to email to right there and then.
a geek in training
she ended buying five teen titan comics and well, i have to admit that i miss the old pricing from back when i was her age. at an average of $3.50 per comic book, i was looking at close to $20 for those five after tax!
we also looked around at all the toys hanging on the walls. we stopped at a miniature gremlim.
“what’s that?” she asked.
“oh… it’s a gremlin,” i answered with nostalgia, “it’s from this movie from when i was your age… they stay cute like this but turn into that if you don’t take care of it properly.” i said this last part while pointing to the evil gremiln at the bottom row.
“what do you meant?” what do you do to turn it into that?”
“umm… don’t feed it? or something like that…. no water… or light… i think it’s that you can’t feed it…”
“don’t feed it after midnight,” one of the young, male store employees interjected.
“that’s right… you can’t feed it after midnight! thank you!” and to myself, i’m thinking, how does this guy now? he wasn’t even born when the movie came out!
but it didn’t stop there. store employee girl #1 said, “you can’t get them wet or they will multiply…” and store employee girl #2 added, “and they don’t like like – it hurts them.”
then the two girls went into a discussion about how the light kills them but the first girl said that it only hurts them. yet, apparently as explained by girl #2, in the sequel, it kills them.
at this point, i’m thinking, there was a 2nd movie?
and these people are all half my age.
at the same time, their friendliness, willing to help and total geek-like nature made me just love them all! while my knowledge about all things 80′s-geek is a bit rusty, i had this feeling that i was right at home.
[note to my friend, B: if you ever go to silver snails don't ever admit you have no idea what a flux capacitor is! you'll make the entire place fall into a deep silence. they might have to ask you to leave the store.]
it was a very cool little adventure with my little miss. she’s reading her very first comic book now. and is already asking when we’ll be going back for more.
