Done

Posted by Ken Campbell March 2, 2014 0 Comment 1931 views

If you hear the phrase, “The end of an era,” used often enough, there’s a risk you might not notice when an actual era does come to an end, when a section of history is cut out of the ongoing strand of time and is set to the side. It will happen in a few hours from now, up in Bellevue, Washington, when the last Marmot Mountain Works will close its doors for the final time.

The party was last night and it was a good party, it really was. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, there’s only so much happy you can put into it after all; a Mardi Gras funeral is still a funeral. It was bittersweet. Good to be able to walk around the place one last time, to breathe in the air in rooms where legends had come before. Last names like Messner, Lowe, Whittaker, Anker… so many others, all knew the place well. So many people came and went, so many employees too, but one constant in the outdoor industry since way back in the ’70’s was Lock.

It really is the end of an era. Lock Miller put 40 years of his life into this store, and into the others that have already closed. Berkeley in 2012, Tacoma in 2010, San Jose and Marin before that. He put all he had into the idea and there are a lot of us out here who should count ourselves lucky to have had the chance to work at one of his stores for a while. It wasn’t the pay, but there were other things about it that made it worthwhile. The connections we have made because of the time we spent there and the things we learned during that time have been among the high points of our lives.

Thanks, Lock. Here’s to more adventures in the days still to come.

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