With the passage of time and a diminishing libido an old man like me loses his passion for the proclivities of youth such as horny women, masturbation, and Richard Laymon books.
Instead, one seeks other interests for an increasingly chaotic and ill-disciplined mind that is constantly conscious and concerned about the signs of early dementia and Parkinson’s.
In my case, those new-found interests include Charles Dickens's books, Mississippi's music, and shops.
Of course, the first two need no explanation—at my age and with my ailments, Bleak House becomes a light read, and The Blues befits my state of mind. But shops?
I have developed a fascination with fascinating shops.
They can be fascinating for any number of reasons, but the most prevalent are what they stock, the eccentricity of the owner, or both.
An excellent example of the latter is a small liquor store on the main street of Katikati in the Bay of Plenty. It’s called Finer Wines but stocks far more than just wines. That’s why it is so fascinating: almost every inch of available floor space is stacked shoulder-high with cases of liquor—wine, beer, and spirits. There is so much of it that walking two abreast between the stacks is impossible. Nor is there room to pass someone if they are already in the narrow corridors between the stacks—you must wait for them to vacate the area.
I have seen nothing like it before.
But what makes Finer Wines even more remarkable is the owner. He will tell you, as he told me, that the reason he has so much stock is that he has just taken delivery of new stock and hasn’t had time to put it away. That is not true. I know for a fact (because I was told) that his shop has always been like that and has been so since its opening.
Even more remarkable, and alone worth a visit, is that this man seems to know where to immediately find any bottle in the shop even, in my case and my request, the most obscure of whiskies. He will also tell you something about every bottle you may be interested in, give tasting notes, and make recommendations.
Finer Wines in Katikati is well worth a personal visit, but there is also a website if you can’t make it.
The other store of interest to me is closer to my home in the Bay of Islands. It is the general store in the small rural town of Okaihau. It is owned by a friend of mine, and next to the district’s best butcher, which is why I first visited it.
The general store lives up to its name by being just that—it stocks just about everything, from fresh produce to toys. There are clothing, books, paintings, and garden tools. But most fascinating of all is that the store is a throwback to an earlier era—and deliberately so. There are loose lollies of the long-forgotten but fondly remembered (when seen) kind, such as large spearmints, milk bottles, smokies, and humbugs. There are toys I remember playing with as a toddler but haven’t come across for decades, and there is a woman behind the counter who looks and acts like Ronnie Barker’s Arkwright from Open All Hours. My wife and I spent almost an hour in this shop the other day and I am sure we didn’t see all this wonderous shop has to offer.
Settlers Way Country Store—make a visit or shop online at https://www.settlersway.co.nz/.
So, deprived of, or perhaps more accurately, dispensed with the proclivities of youth mentioned above, I am quite happy to settle for the small things in life, such as these shops.
They are my happy place.
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