Never Cease.

Like numerous others before me, and numerous others after, skateboarding has taken me all over this country in search of yet another story to tell. A couple years ago I was lucky enough to travel the southeastern part of said country with some of my then up-and-coming, but now fully upped and came, friends from Atlanta on Thrasher Magazine's dime. It wasn't the best trip ever, but that's a story too right?

Anyway, while in Memphis, Tennessee, we needed griptape or a bolt or axle nut or something small like that, so we went to Cheapskates, rumored to be the "core" shop in town. I was absolutely shocked with what we walked into. I don't know if "core" is the right word, but "museum" seems like an undeniably good shoe to put on it. As this segue would have it, a shoe is a perfect place to illustrate my point. On the wall was Mike V's first model on etnies. The one with the lightning bolts. And not just in one size. Basically a full run. Six years or more after it first came out. And still full price. I would guess that they had over 200 models of shoes for sale in the shop, and a large portion of them were from the early millennium.

The shoe selection at this particular retailer was far from the most fascinating anomaly on the trip, but it sort of illustrates my point: never cease to be amazed. While I'm not a huge fan of surprises, I'm fully backing amazement.

And even the front door of the place was amazing.