For 45 years, the Wax Museum record store offered Charlotteans a collection of the “old” records. Beach music, R&B, soul, big band, and rock & roll. It was all there, even if the location changed. I started going to their second location on Elizabeth Avenue in the early ‘90s, and then its next location on East Boulevard, and then on Monroe Road. Last Saturday, the Wax Museum closed its doors. It was never a magical place. Just a dusty store with lots of records, many of whom I saw every time I searched there. But those occasional finds, gems amongst the dust, kept me coming back.
I bought a few more records on my last trips there. But I also wanted to walk through that space, one more time. You can take of the photographs and videos in the world, and they are good to have, but they can never completely fulfill the experience of living. Only suggest and hint at it. And so, records in hand, I lived at the Wax Museum, one more time, before walking out the door into another sunset, and another quiet, lamentable goodbye.
Farewell, Wax Museum. Thank you for all the music.
-Daniel Coston
November 27, 2017
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