Profiting off the destruction of more of my childhood

This weekend, I went to a closing / moving sale at FYE in Warwick. (It looked like it was still going on today, if anyone in Rhode Island is reading this and still interested.) I'm always filled with mixed feelings about closing sales:

1) I love all the bargains and discounts. I scooped up about 10 movies, a PS2 Game (Rogue Galaxy) and a Captain America t-shirt (pictured above) for about $60. The movies were mostly quality - Alien, Say Anything, Airheads… You know, that last one fits right in with the first two.

2) I feel somewhat nostalgic at another aspect of my childhood closing up. When I was a kid, I loved walking through the aisles and thumbing the merchandise at stores like FYE (back when it was called something else), Strawberry's, Lechmere, Circuit City, Blockbuster…

There are probably more, but heck, they're all closed. All that's left standing is Best Buy, Target and Walmart, it seems. And none of these serve as primary deliverers of content - The CDs and video games seem in there as more of an afterthought, to round out their completeness, as opposed to the vocal point.

… That Captain America shirt sure does look sweet though. I'll have to wear it as soon as I wash it.

Hey, that's my car! ... wait no it's not...

I drive a white 1998 Corolla. Usually, this is a good thing to me. It gets really good gas mileage, and while the top (practical) speed is "only" 85 to 100 miles per hour, the car is so light that it easily accelerates and zips around on a good weather day. The maintenance and repair costs tend to be low as well, since everyone is so familiar with the car and there are plenty of new and used parts for it floating around.

However, there are also 500 billion of my car floating around. In fact, today, I almost broke into a car, because I didn't realize until I was touching the door that it was not my car. Then, I drifted to another car in the lot, before realizing that wait, that wasn't my car either - I had parked another row down.

I have not done a scientific survey yet, but I feel pretty confident when I say that the late 1990s and early 2000s Corolla is the most god damn popular car of all-time. (Example: One time I went to Wal-Mart, and I parked between two white Corollas. I'm hoping that the first person who came back noted how tricky I was, but it's not like I hung out and waited for them.) Also, since Corollas almost never break down, there are still plenty of them on the road. Plus, there are tons of Chevy / Geo Prisms still out there, which are essentially clones of the Corolla.

Therefore, this is not the first time I have felt a touch of amnesia from not being able to find my own car. It has happened a couple times before, even though 1) I have a huge crack in my windshield and 2) there are several newspaper loads on my backseat. You would think both would make my car easily distinguishable, but no - I never realize I have both until I'm practically upon my car.