I still remember the store, I still remember the book. It's been over two decades, but I still remember. Now, after all these years, the doors will finally shut.
Walk with me a moment, if you would. Indulge a tired man a few reminisces. Forgive me if I overstay my visit to the past. It's owed, owed more than I can rightly say, and it pains me that this is all I have to offer as eulogy.
The Last Chance Bargain Store was a Goodwill-type thrift store a mile or two from our house. Sometimes after school, and more often on weekends, Mom would take my brother and I shopping with her to find what new treasures had appeared that week. It was a wonderful place, filled with used books, board games, previously owned toys, strange electronics, and other wonderful baubles, some of it within the price range of a thrifty elementary schoolchild, and much of it below the price that makes a parent think "this can wait til a birthday or Christmas." Mark me, the place was not without flaws. Most annoyingly it was filled to the brim with clothes I had to try on every time we went, which took away valuable time I could have been using to sneak back over to the books, toys and electronics.
I found it in the book section, sixty nine cents marked in black crayon on the inside cover. It was red, it was three-hole punched, and had a big green lizard on the cover. "Dungeons & Dragons" it said and inside it described a game altogether unlike any other I had heard of before. Fiendish dungeons, magic swords, fantastic monsters, and piles of gold. It promised adventure, peril, reward, and mapping, lots and lots of mapping. I was hooked. I bought it on the spot, took it home and pored over it, hurrying about gathering the items needed for play.
Pencils, check. Blank paper, check. Graph paper check. Dice, che . . . wait a minute.
What the heck is this? What the heck kind of dice are these? Oh that is so cool! Four sides, eight sides, ten, twelve, TWENTY?!?!?! Where the heck am I going to get these? It's a game, right? So where do you find games? A toy store. What's the best toy store in the world? Lennox Toy and Hobby! Of course! If they didn't have it, no one would. Parents were cajoled, illustrations pointed at, and one fine Saturday morning, my Father and I drove over to Lennox Mall to visit Lennox Toy and Hobby, the best toy store in the world. The fact that Blue Ridge Outdoor, the greatest outdoor and camping store in the world was a few doors down from Lennox Toy and Hobby always made Dad somewhat more approachable on the subject of a visit. Looking back, I think Dad figured if he got to visit his toy store, it was only fair if I got to visit mine.
In I marched, my Dungeons and Dragons rules clutched tight in my hands. After the customary perusal of the giant robot toys and the inspection of the Brio train set, I strode confidently to the counter, and inquired about specialty dice. To my shock and horror, they did not carry that sort of thing. The world spun. The poles shifted. If they, the most amazing toy store I had ever know didn't have them, would anyone? The lights seemed to dim. Was there no hope?
"...but I think there's a place in the mall that does, called Sword of the Phoenix."
What? What was that? Sword of the Phoenix? What sort of name is that? Here, in this very mall you say? Capital, I say! Most excellent! The game's afoot. Let's go!
And we were off. Into the mall, searching, seeking, for this new store. We found it, in the mall's interior, one level up from the video arcade. The most amazing store I had ever seen. There were boxes upon boxes of games I had never heard of, with names like Battledroids, Doctor Who, and Car Wars. They had magazines named Dungeon and Stardate. They had a bookshelf alcove done up with brick, and mortar and barred windows, just like I imagined a proper dungeon should look. There was a wall of miniatures and paint, and there, by the counter, were the dice. Strange little bits of plastic they were, so unlike the pipped cubes I had always thought of as dice before. I looked around, picked out my dice, and my father and I were on our way. For better or worse, thus began my interest in the hobby.
It's been over two decades now. I live in a different state. Games have come and gone. My original D&D collection, including that first red book was lost or bequeathed to some of my cousins many years ago. The Last Chance Bargain Store burned to the ground some time back. A Rite-Aid now sits in its place. A new thrift store, Value Village, sits next to it, in what used to be a Food Lion. Lennox Toy and Hobby closed their doors some time ago. I imagine like many specialty toy stores they were unable to compete with the arrival of Toy'R'Us on the retail scene.
Through it all, every time I went to Atlanta, I would try to visit the Sword of the Phoenix. Though they would eventually move out of Lenox Mall to a new location near the Brookhaven MARTA station, there was something special about going back. It was a quiet place where I could bask in memories of a time when everything seemed newer, fresher, excitingly unfamiliar. This was where I first felt a sense of wonder unlike any before because I had discovered some part of a wider world I heretofore never knew existed. When I am lucky, I sometimes still feel that wonder again.
But to all things, there is an end.
On August 26th, 2005, the Sword of the Phoenix will close its doors for the last time. It is with sincere regret that I must say farewell to one of the last fixed stars of my childhood memories.
