Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

For the sake of posterity, I’m publishing here a letter I submitted to the Wake Weekly. I doubt it will ever see the light of day there, since I sent it so late in the week, and it doesn’t really apply as much any more with this week’s article, but I wanted to record it nonetheless.

From here on out, I won’t focus on the closing any more, but I will continue to post fond memories and recollections, at least until I run out of them. My intention isn’t to mourn the closing any more (though I will miss it), or even to attempt to point fingers, but to celebrate what The Corner was, not just to me, but perhaps to others as well.

Dear Editor,

As an expatriate and friend of â��The Cornerâ��, I appreciated your article on its untimely demise. I read with interest the summarized quote from Mr. Beasley, who waxed eloquent concerning the minimal fees assessed in exchange for granting the permit necessary for installation of the required grease trap … but then suddenly found himself much less lucid when discussing the significantly higher cost of actual installation and the associated maintenance fees. I suppose he was simply trying to avoid the embarrassment associated with the public revelation of the â��true costâ�� of the water department merger. Or, perhaps he was simply attempting to avoid the obvious question of why existing Wake Forest businesses were not grandfathered such that they could continue to operate as they had before. But let me move on … nobody wants to cast aspersions on the character of those they don’t know, now do they?

All of us who were intimately involved with The Corner know that the real purpose behind the business wasn’t to profit from the sale of ice cream and sandwiches, but to ‘profit’ from the joy one received from seeing good friends enjoy lunch together, or the smile on a child’s face when they took their cone of ice cream (while standing on the omnipresent steps in front of the ice cream case, of course). The wonderful thing about The Corner was that the patrons who frequented the business profited as well, through time spent with good friends over good food, and good conversation over good coffee … or, in the case of the children, having a warm, friendly environment to eat ice cream on a hot summer day and watch the fish. Yes, The Corner was something of a self-sustaining ecosystem of joy (at least up until the intrusion of the water system merger) and all of Wake Forest was richer for its presence.

Now, however, that ecosystem is gone. There is a hole in Wake Forest, located at the corner of North Main and North Avenue. The old English script lettering that invited us all in has been tearfully scraped off those big plate glass windows with a razor blade, and the interior now sits empty. Yes, I’ll always have the wealth of memories from my times there … first as a young customer, and later as an employee. I’ll always remember the friends, the games of chess, the discussions about politics, theology, and what not, and best of all, the joy of handing a cone of ice cream to a happy child. But … my home-away-from-home in Wake Forest is gone.

To all of my friends who visited The Corner, whether I knew your name or not, thanks for all the memories. I enjoyed meeting each and every one of you, and I hope that one day, when I’m walking down North Main Street during a visit home that I will have the opportunity to see you again. To those of you responsible for the water system merger … well, my mother taught me that if one doesn’t have anything nice to say, they should say nothing at all. But, I’ll leave you with a warning … I’ve heard rumors that certain persons, after passing on from this life, find themselves in a situation where they strongly desire a drop of water to drink. Or maybe a nice, cold scoop of ice cream.

Jeremy Clifton
Chattanooga, TN
Employee Emeritus, The Corner

P.S. That last comment is tongue-in-cheek. I don’t really wish any ill will towards those involved with the merger. Businesses come and go year after year, for one reason or another. Even then, there was more at play with the closing than the grease trap issue. The real lesson here is that we should enjoy the things that we love and hold dear while they are available, for we never know when they might no longer be with us.