One of the myriad things about unschooling our teens is that we can take small outings during the day, especially on Fridays, when my husband is off from the church. When most kids are in school during the regular school year, it’s nice to take our own field trips on a Friday when there are fewer folks at the places we tend to frequent around Western North Carolina. But there are times we simply like to head off to our two girls’ favorite places—Harvest Records & Bagatelle Books—two places filled with new and used gems of vinyl and books, and then on to Barnes & Nobles at the mall to browse some of the newer graphic novels. It’s an afternoon of definite delight.
Most of the time on these outings, my husband heads into Harvest Records with our oldest teenager who methodically scours each of the bins of the store’s newly acquired used vinyl, the store’s current stock of used vinyl, and then the newly released vinyl options. While they are moving through the record options, our youngest teenager and I tend to head across the street to Bagatelle Books, a place my girl likes to visit to see if she will uncover any unexpected gems in their shelves overflowing with options of well-worn and pristine used books. On this particular outing, our 15 year old finished her perusing sooner than usual, so, to give her sister a bit more time, I decided we would join our other half in the record store. This is not typical for our 15 year old because sometimes the music can feel too loud and sensory-esque for her.
Still, we decided because it was still quite hot and humid, the air-conditioned record store was a better option than the car and so we headed inside. Right before we entered, a man and his dog went in ahead of us. It didn’t take long after we followed them inside for my critter-loving girl to hone in on the sweet pupster’s existence and within seconds she approached the pup and his human to say hello. Nothing calms our girl like a new animal friend and she immediately squatted herself down next to the chocolate brown pup, talking softly to her and alternately rubbing her ears and her belly.
His name was Ziggy and in my opinion, Ziggy had a bit of stardust in that record store, providing a small bubble of comfort from the music playing over the speakers with a strong baseline and a thumping drum beat. With her headphones in place and a sweet pupster beside her, our girl was more than okay with being in the record store while her sister finished searching for potential cassette tapes to try in her old-school stereo and tape deck. These are the little things I love about our girls, things they don’t even see about themselves or each other.
We learned that Ziggy recently had some cancer-related surgery, her human pointing out the operation scar, but assured us that Ziggy’s chill disposition was her usual demeanor, cancer or not. I loved watching my girl keeping that sweet girl company as her human perused the newly acquired used vinyl and moved over to the listening station to play some vinyl. Ziggy’s stardust and presence also allowed me to check in with Matt, one of the store’s owners and introduce him to my 17 year old who is hoping to spend some time there as an intern from time to time learning what sort of things they do to keep the store running as successfully as they do.
Sometimes it can feel challenging to me to make sure each of our girls has the time they want in their favorite places, perhaps because I know what it’s like to want to linger just a little longer in a place that brings me joy. Most of the time, it feels pretty evenly split, but on this day, I realized we hadn’t stayed at Bagatelle Books as long as we usually did. On this trip, with the help of Ziggy’s stardust, there was an opportunity for our 17 year old to take a bit longer in her choice place among her treasured vinyl. But there was also the magic of our 15 year old enjoying the delight, the enchantment, only a four-legged critter can provide. That bit of sheer joy an animal provides by their very presence—their calm breathing, their curious eyes, their exposed belly, their twitching tail—their very essence essentially telling us they appreciate us for who we are, where we are. Even a record store on a sunny Friday afternoon. Thank you, Ziggy, for your stardust.