The Psychological Damage of Growing Up in Hastings and Losing It

There are younger people alive today who will never understand the cultural power Hastings once had over Lubbock, or the devastation that shook us to our core when it closed down.

I feel bad for them

Hastings wasn't just a store to us.

It was a social event.

A lifestyle, even.

You never ran into Hastings "real quick." You disappeared into the building for three and a half hours and emerged with a lava lamp, a cup of coffee, and 4 used CDs for less than $10.

Hastings had everything.

Books. Music. Movies. Video games. Posters. Anime. Strange imported snacks and candy. Entire aisles dedicated to things your parents did NOT want you looking at.

A generation of Lubbock kids and teenagers felt the magic of Hastings before smartphones and social media consumed human civilization and ruined the world forever.

We had a place to go when we were bored. It was the headquarters for alternative kids, movie buffs, gamers, metalheads, readers, skaters, and anyone who just wanted to avoid going home for another hour.

There was something so special about walking through aisles and aisles of CDs, looking for new music based entirely on the vibes you got from the album cover art.

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That kind of experience does not exist anymore in Lubbock.

Walking through there on a Friday night was the best feeling in the world. It also kept a lot of us out of trouble. It was our safe place.

When Hastings bit the dust, it felt personal to all of us.

Sure, we understood why it was happening, but emotionally, we were anything but okay, and we still aren't over it.

I'm not. Are you?

Long live the memories, I guess.

Keep scrolling for more odds and ends in the galleries below, starting with some ways to decompress if this Hastings article has you feeling some kind of way...