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The stories we've been running in The Bee about Gottschalks shutting down have a personal element: I worked for the company through college and beyond. And while I can't remember the last time I walked into a Gottschalks (so clearly I was part of the problem), I'm sad to see it go. I still have friends I made when we worked there all those years ago. It was a great job; the company let me go back and forth between stores and the corproate office so I could go home for school vacations and still earn money.

I learned so much there - the value of engaging people, no matter what your job; the difference good customer service makes; the satisfaction in doing even the little tasks right. I have a lot of memories - playing Scrabble while answering phones in a basement in Fresno, shaking bells while making the store closing announcement on Christmas Eve (I can still make that announcement), combing through an irate credit card holder's statement to find the error - the customer, it turns out, isn't always right.

So Nicholas won't get to see where I learned how to gift-wrap a stroller without a box (it can be done). Or where, assigned to the display department one day, I unraveled about a gajillion Christmas lights from last year's trees and scored free mood lighting for my apartment. It will be just a memory, yet another story from my youth which will no doubt elicit big sighs and eye rolls.