Mazes of Hardware

The other day, I was riding my bike to school and had a great flashback to my childhood. We had two fabulous hardware/houseware/everything stores: Spag's and Somerville Lumber. What I loved about these stores (and it was most true of Spag's) was the maze-like layout. It was such an adventure to wind through the aisles that were like the streets of New England themselves (we don't have grids) and be surrounded by so much variety. Just shelves and shelves of lightbulbs and nails and containers. And walls of light switches and drawer pulls. Somerville Lumber had a maze of sliding glass doors, shower doors, and tubs. It was magical.

Of course, with the advent of Lowe's and Home Depot, these stores no longer exist. And thus, the maze of goods is gone, giving way to the sky high metal shelving, neatly organized in rows. I doubt that children have has much fun in these places as I did.