When I was in high school, Tower Records was the coolest, best record store in the world. I practically lived in the Tower store in El Cajon, and a pilgrimage to the Hollywood Tower was a treat. If you had told me that 25 years later, Tower would be shutting down, I would not have believed you. Or if I believed you, I would have been horrified. “You mean, there will only be the Warehouse and Musicland?”

It would be unfair to say I haven’t been in a Tower in a decade, because there was no Tower in Ventura (where I spent most of the past 10 years), but I don’t buy many CDs now, either. I’m hardly going to miss Tower.

Still, Tower was once an institution. Many of us think newspapers are an institution. Tower is passing into history. It starts liquidating on Saturday. What will a newspaper “going out of business” sale look like?

NOTE: The best independent record store, also El Cajon, Blue Meanies, went out of business some time ago.