The Closing of The Sentry: Something of a Eulogy
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I have been struck a heavy blow today. The game store that I have frequented for the last fifteen years closed perminantly today and it is difficult to describe the sense of loss I feel.
The Sentry opened 16 years ago when I was 8. It was right by my house and so my dad and I discovered it while we were out on a walk together. At the time The Sentry was selling the Star Trek Trading Card Game, both me and my dad were Star Trek fans and so we bought a couple packs and had fun playing the game. That was really the first time I had been exposed to a hobby and I think it was really what got me into the all geeky stuff that I love today. Ever since then The Sentry has been the place I go to for hobby stuff.
After the Star Trek TCG I started playing Magic, this was about the time when the Mirage and Tempest deck blocks were being sold and I loved the story behind them. I continued to collect Magic cards for five years (up until after the Kamigawa block) and mainly at that store. It wasn't a huge store but they sold a variety of stuff there. Model ships, planes and tanks from all different eras (usually on the weekends I would go the store with my dad and he would browse the model tanks and planes while I would decide which magic boosters to buy), Lego, various trading card games (Star Trek, Magic, Yu Gi Oh), those big historical figures that Pegaso makes, historical wargame miniatures (medieval, Napoleonic, American Civil War), and of course Warhammer.
I was too much into Magic to pay much attention to Warhammer until I was 13. My 8th grade teacher got me an Lord of the Rings Elf Warrior mini as a farewell gift when I graduated Middle School (she was a totally awesome teacher by the way, she's been playing Dungeons and Dragons since the 70s, she ran a D&D club afterschool and was my first Dungeonmaster). I had never painted a mini before, but I bought some paint and I loved doing it. I wanted to paint more and I remembered The Sentry sold models like this so I went and bought a High Elf Dragon Prince blister and painted that as well. Then I wanted to paint more so I bought a box of High Elf Spearmen and all the paint colours the Eavy Metal team recommended on the back of the box. While I was there the guy who ran The Sentry (I've been going there for 16 years you'd think I'd have learned his bloody name by now) said that the store was holding a painting contest and there were prizes to be won. I took them home and painted them to look as much like the Eavy Metal spearmen as I could and I my OCD and perfectionist tendencies must have paid off because I won the prize for best Warhammer Fantasy regiment. As a prize I got a gift voucher which was enough to buy the High Elf Army Book and a Grey Knight Terminator blister. It was the first time I had ever even entered a contest where I had to work at and create something to win and I had won! This was also the point were I got hooked on Warhammer and 40k.
I've been into Warhammer for 12 years and I have shelves High Elves, Bretonnians, Empire, Space Marines, Grey Knights and Imperial Guard, as well as three editions worth of army books and codexes, most of which I bought from The Sentry. Later on when started going to university and really got into studying The French Revolution and The Napoleonic Wars I started buying and painting Napoleonic War minis from The Sentry too. Of course while I've been at university I haven't had as much time for my hobbies as I used to and haven't had the time to go to The Sentry as often as I used to but whenever I needed more models or wanted to pick up the latest Codex that's where I went. Almost every experience I've had going into a Games Workshop store was a bad one. They always used high pressure sales tactics to try and get me to buy stuff I didn't really want, and I could never just go in there and browse there was always some asshole hovering right beside me trying to act like he was my best bud and shove an Assualt on Black Reach box into my hands. There was never any of that kind of bullshit at The Sentry. When I walked in the door the owner would just nod and say "Hey man whats up." and I could take all the time I needed to agonize over what I models I could afford on my current budget without being hassled.
These last couple months I'd been taking some summer courses and had no time whatsoever for my hobbies but I had finished all my essays, recovered from writing all those essays and went down The Sentry to get a new box of Brets. I was shocked to see a sign in the window that said Last Day and Closing Sale 25% Off Everything. I walked in and ask the owner what was going on? He said that he was retiring, he had turned 70 this year and he wanted/needed to retire and none of his sons or grandsons were interested in taking on the store so The Sentry was closing. I wasn't quite sure what to say, so I told him that this was a damn sad thing. The dude smiled and shrugged and said yeah, but he had been there for 16 years and had done pretty well for himself so he was happy.
The dude was a bro, he remembered me from over the years and I got two Bretonnian Battleforce boxes, 6 of the old pewter Grey Knight Terminators, two Tactical Marine Squads, a box of the old pewter High Elf Dragon Knights, a box of High Elf Spearmen, a Space Marine Jetpack Chaplin, A High Elf Mage, a Bretonnian Damsel, a pewter Commisar Yarrick, the Black Templar Codex, and the Africa 1943 Flames of War book for 300 bucks.
Its awesome that I got all this but ever since the drive home I've been afflicted with a terrible melancholy. Intellectually I know that after awhile I'll feel better, and that it was just a store and that I'll always have the memories and all that. But this place is... was a big piece of childhood, a big part of my life, and to see it go is very painful. I suppose that's why I'm posting this I just want to get it off my chest to someone.
So long The Sentry, so long dude who ran The Sentry, and thanks for everything.
The Sentry opened 16 years ago when I was 8. It was right by my house and so my dad and I discovered it while we were out on a walk together. At the time The Sentry was selling the Star Trek Trading Card Game, both me and my dad were Star Trek fans and so we bought a couple packs and had fun playing the game. That was really the first time I had been exposed to a hobby and I think it was really what got me into the all geeky stuff that I love today. Ever since then The Sentry has been the place I go to for hobby stuff.
After the Star Trek TCG I started playing Magic, this was about the time when the Mirage and Tempest deck blocks were being sold and I loved the story behind them. I continued to collect Magic cards for five years (up until after the Kamigawa block) and mainly at that store. It wasn't a huge store but they sold a variety of stuff there. Model ships, planes and tanks from all different eras (usually on the weekends I would go the store with my dad and he would browse the model tanks and planes while I would decide which magic boosters to buy), Lego, various trading card games (Star Trek, Magic, Yu Gi Oh), those big historical figures that Pegaso makes, historical wargame miniatures (medieval, Napoleonic, American Civil War), and of course Warhammer.
I was too much into Magic to pay much attention to Warhammer until I was 13. My 8th grade teacher got me an Lord of the Rings Elf Warrior mini as a farewell gift when I graduated Middle School (she was a totally awesome teacher by the way, she's been playing Dungeons and Dragons since the 70s, she ran a D&D club afterschool and was my first Dungeonmaster). I had never painted a mini before, but I bought some paint and I loved doing it. I wanted to paint more and I remembered The Sentry sold models like this so I went and bought a High Elf Dragon Prince blister and painted that as well. Then I wanted to paint more so I bought a box of High Elf Spearmen and all the paint colours the Eavy Metal team recommended on the back of the box. While I was there the guy who ran The Sentry (I've been going there for 16 years you'd think I'd have learned his bloody name by now) said that the store was holding a painting contest and there were prizes to be won. I took them home and painted them to look as much like the Eavy Metal spearmen as I could and I my OCD and perfectionist tendencies must have paid off because I won the prize for best Warhammer Fantasy regiment. As a prize I got a gift voucher which was enough to buy the High Elf Army Book and a Grey Knight Terminator blister. It was the first time I had ever even entered a contest where I had to work at and create something to win and I had won! This was also the point were I got hooked on Warhammer and 40k.
I've been into Warhammer for 12 years and I have shelves High Elves, Bretonnians, Empire, Space Marines, Grey Knights and Imperial Guard, as well as three editions worth of army books and codexes, most of which I bought from The Sentry. Later on when started going to university and really got into studying The French Revolution and The Napoleonic Wars I started buying and painting Napoleonic War minis from The Sentry too. Of course while I've been at university I haven't had as much time for my hobbies as I used to and haven't had the time to go to The Sentry as often as I used to but whenever I needed more models or wanted to pick up the latest Codex that's where I went. Almost every experience I've had going into a Games Workshop store was a bad one. They always used high pressure sales tactics to try and get me to buy stuff I didn't really want, and I could never just go in there and browse there was always some asshole hovering right beside me trying to act like he was my best bud and shove an Assualt on Black Reach box into my hands. There was never any of that kind of bullshit at The Sentry. When I walked in the door the owner would just nod and say "Hey man whats up." and I could take all the time I needed to agonize over what I models I could afford on my current budget without being hassled.
These last couple months I'd been taking some summer courses and had no time whatsoever for my hobbies but I had finished all my essays, recovered from writing all those essays and went down The Sentry to get a new box of Brets. I was shocked to see a sign in the window that said Last Day and Closing Sale 25% Off Everything. I walked in and ask the owner what was going on? He said that he was retiring, he had turned 70 this year and he wanted/needed to retire and none of his sons or grandsons were interested in taking on the store so The Sentry was closing. I wasn't quite sure what to say, so I told him that this was a damn sad thing. The dude smiled and shrugged and said yeah, but he had been there for 16 years and had done pretty well for himself so he was happy.
The dude was a bro, he remembered me from over the years and I got two Bretonnian Battleforce boxes, 6 of the old pewter Grey Knight Terminators, two Tactical Marine Squads, a box of the old pewter High Elf Dragon Knights, a box of High Elf Spearmen, a Space Marine Jetpack Chaplin, A High Elf Mage, a Bretonnian Damsel, a pewter Commisar Yarrick, the Black Templar Codex, and the Africa 1943 Flames of War book for 300 bucks.
Its awesome that I got all this but ever since the drive home I've been afflicted with a terrible melancholy. Intellectually I know that after awhile I'll feel better, and that it was just a store and that I'll always have the memories and all that. But this place is... was a big piece of childhood, a big part of my life, and to see it go is very painful. I suppose that's why I'm posting this I just want to get it off my chest to someone.
So long The Sentry, so long dude who ran The Sentry, and thanks for everything.
