We are a little short-staffed at Wallyhood during the month of August. But it’s supposed to be a slow neighborhood news month, with summertime street fairs finished and many people out of town on end-of-the-season vacations. With fewer off-leash dogs desecrating our parks, and fewer readers to complain or care about it, what is there to write about? August is usually when the Mariners are completely and mathematically eliminated from the post-season (but NOT THIS YEAR) and people have shifted to football prognostications about the Huskies and Seahawks. So we sort of figured the blog would be coasting into September and the editors who were around would be sitting around eating fresh tomatoes and swilling wine waiting for a fresh news cycle to crank up.
As it turned out, this was only partially correct. We can confirm that at least one editor was/is sitting around eating fresh tomatoes and swilling red wine. But we’ve had a little recent burst of goings-on in the neighborhood that have ranged from the truly awful (the motel murder) to the disturbingly odd (the smoke shop skirmishes).
Today’s story is on the mild end of the angst spectrum. Like many others who have passed by in the last couple of days, I noticed that the 7-11 at 40th and Stone Way was, unexpectedly and surprisingly, closed and boarded up. Chatter on Facebook was speculative, with some saying the corporation was at odds with franchisees and closing many locations, and some pointing out that other 7-11s in the area had closed but re-opened.
I stopped by the store on Stone Way on Friday. While the store was closed and everything was still boarded up with the gas pumps taped off, there was activity inside and this sign on the door:
So perhaps we can take this as a hopeful development—although it may be something of a fairly pathetic or apocalyptic statement unto itself that we look to 7-11 for hope these days. But there are those of us who have counted on a nearby 7-11 for cheap(er) gas, cold six-packs, Slurpees® on a hot day, and those strange meatlike objects rotating endlessly under bright fluorescent lighting. And maybe even the occasional MegaMillion or PowerBall ticket when the pots hit a billion dollars. This being Wallingford, however: I would never admit to any of those things. Unless I was well into my tomatoes and red wine.
The last place I found a Hostess snowball was there. Hey, thanks for keeping this up. I rode by on the bus to work and didn’t have time to stop by, and I appreciate the knowledge. It’s the little stuff in a neighborhood that matters (and a lof of 711’s are closing, though the one on the Ave seemed open)
…And now I have a sudden, undeniable urge for one of those cellophane-wrapped fruit pies they sell there. And a Slim Jim.
Thanks for the update!
The crowd at that 7-11 witnessed my car getting hit and doing a 540 (one and a half revolutions) in the air, landing on the roof when a person in 2009 drove through the light at 40th and Stone southbound. A large number of them helped get me out of the car (Subaru Foresters have very strong roofs). I have nothing but fond feelings for that place.
Gary, in this article you mention, “With fewer off-leash dogs desecrating our parks…” I am interested in this thesis statement. Do you have a reference to some data, article, or anecdote that led to this assumption? I use Wallingford Playfield regularly and have not noticed such a reduction in this activity. Thank you for any direction you can give.