I am going to miss Dixie and the 20th Maine.

I was in Maine again this weekend and made another stop by the 20th Maine Bookstore in Freeport. The news I had feared was coming has come. 20th Maine retail store will be closing at the end of June. I mentioned that this might happen in an earlier post.

I talked to the owners and what they are hearing form their contacts business is down all around. They have also seen a significantly decline in the participation of the local CWRT and have heard from number of Maine based Reenacting units that are seeing their ranks shrink. Now as it has in the past I would expect that the Civil War would go up and down in popularity but even with the 150th anniversary on the horizon it looks like the popularity of the Civil War has sunk to a new level. I wonder if it can ever recover and get back to levels of the early to mid nineties? If it does it will really require a new generation of interested readers and I don’t know if the reading and learning about the Civil War can compete with iPODs and PlayStations. Maybe for Kevin’s students this won’t be an issue but I think they are in a small minority.

The 20th Maine will move its remaining inventory and will continue to operate as an on-line entity. In the next two months there will be bargains to be had so if you are in Freeport stop by or checkout their web sight. For me I am going to miss walking through the packed bookcases and finding new a treasure. This was also a place I looked forward to going to.

I feel bad for my wife because without the 20th Maine I am not sure I am going to be as willing to go to Freeport. I am also going to miss seeing Dixie who is the dog pictured above.