Good-bye to Cooter's Camera Store

I grew up in Dallas, just off Preston Rd, down the street from Highland Park Village, the first shopping center in the U.S.I can’t tell you how many times I walked to the Village, to shop at Sanger’s, watch movies at the Village Theater, eat at the S & S Tea Room, to take ballroom dancing lessons in seventh grade.And to buy film at Cooter’s Village Camera.Years later my sister Susan married Chriss Cooter and I became related to Cooter’s Camera.   Chris and Susan’s two daughters, Carissa and Erin, have worked with their father and their uncle for years now, keeping the family business flourishing.Until today.  After 60 years as an institution in Highland Park, Cooter’s Village Camera is no more.  A victim of the failing economy and changing technology.  A sad day for the Cooter family.  And for many who did their photographic shopping there.My nieces, who thought the camera store would be their livelihood for life, must now look for a different future.  And some immediate employment.It happens to all of us.  Our hometowns change.  People move away.  Children grow up.  We grow old.Life is uncertain.  The psalmist tells us:  You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.But God assures us: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life… C 2011 Judy Douglass