Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This little Italian Ice shop was in the strip mall which also houses Very's, and was open, I believe, only this summer. I like the window art.

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I believe I first noticed this storefront adjacent to Very's when it was National-something-or-other, but I don't see anything about that in google. As of the start of March 2020, Regional was in the spot. As 2020 was a bad year for people being able to finance things, I'm guessing the knock-on from Covid took them out, but I don't know for sure. At any rate the slot is now open and available.

I noticed last time I drove by Very's to see if they were doing dine-in yet that the thrift store in the same Two Notch plaza was gone. Judging by their Facebook, they were open into at least December of last year. I used to stop into places like this all the time to look for old books and records, but both are digital for me these days, so I never did stop here. The full name seems to have been Refreshed & Restored (R&R) Ministries Thrift Store, so I guess they were associated with a church.

I noticed on my latest trip to Very's that the hydroponic gardening store in the same Two Notch plaza, All Good Hydroponics was gone and a thrift store was in its spot. The phonebook suggests that this happened sometime last year as they don't list in the 2014 edition.

For me, the term hydroponics has always reeked of science fiction as it was a common element in many books about life on space ships and space stations. Usually it was described as a thankless task that got assigned to hapless crew memebers as KP was assigned in books about army life. Visually, I would always think about those trays the Robinsons would grow food in on Lost In Space during those long planet-bound blocks of episodes where the budget didn't allow any actual spaceflight effects...