Very sad to lose a MP in one's life. Hobby shops are like that: Mile Posts.
I have two major hobby shop "Mile Posts" in my life that are long gone: Spotlight Model Railroad in Kansas City, MO. (Great memories from that place early in my "scale" model railroad life's journey) and the "Golden Spike" hobby shop of Fort Smith, AR.
The chaps at Spotlight Model RR were responsible for getting me started as a "serious" HO scale model railroader in the mid-late 60s by teaching this kid (verbally at the counter) how to paint and decal my models along with fixing me up with the needed tools/supplies. Great guys. (I should have kept one of the resulting Mop Jenks Blue painted engines I painted during that time for a keep-sake.)
As for the Golden Spike, I have a friendship with the proprietor of the Golden Spike that (to this day) has lasted over 50 years. Shop owners David, and his late wife Shirley, became far more than hobby shop "owner" friends. They became life-long friends that are like family to us. They have been to our home, and vice versa, ate out together, etc, innumerable times. Even the daughters and a railroading grand son (trains run in his blood, courtesy of his grand dad David) are like family.
I FULLY "get it" when one of you guys bemoan the loss of a treasured hobby shop.
Andre
