After 30 years in Athens, Jerry Ski is getting the feeling his novelty might finally be wearing off.
The owner of Ski's Teases & Collectibles, 55 N. Court St., has spent the better part of three decades selling vintage t-shirts and other unique items uptown since graduating from Ohio University in 1973.
Lately, however, the treatment he has received from the city and the university, as well as sheer bad luck, has led Ski to believe he's unwanted in Athens.
A lengthy construction project on the Court Street sidewalk this past summer put Ski's business in a financial bind. Then the remnants of hurricanes flooded his basement shop, closing it for several key weeks soon after students returned.
At Halloween, the city will allow vendors to occupy the sidewalk outside Ski's shop, making it difficult for out-of-town visitors to realize it exists.
Meanwhile, the university, fighting to change its reputation, attempts to prevent Ski's shirts from alluding to OU's party-school image. He said he's not supposed to mention O, U, OU or Ohio University on his products without paying the school a kickback for their trademarks. Luckily, loophole t-shirt designs, such as Harvard on the Hocking and D'OH U afford Ski some creativity.
Both the university's quarter system, which prevents a Christmas shopping rush, and the city's lack of uptown parking also have hurt Ski's Teases and other Uptown businesses unique to Athens.
For Ski, it has reached the point where he's been forced to pay his rent and utilities on a week-to-week basis to survive and, in all likelihood, will close his door forever after Fall Quarter.
I've basically out-stayed my welcome here
and I guess it's time to move on he said. But it's a shame for the students -you never know what you have until it's gone.
What Athens has in Ski's store is much more than simply comics, posters, toys and T-shirt designs dating back to the 1970s and '80s. It has a lesson in history. The T-shirts and other items in Ski's Teases speak in ways that bricks and buildings and barstools would if they could talk.
When OU alumni return to Athens, they stop into Ski's store to replace a shirt they wore out years ago with a replica of the original. When new students, particularly sorority girls, first discover it, they return with their friends and leave with handfuls of custom T-shirts they will not find anywhere else.
The city and university need to treat Ski's Teases and all other long-standing Uptown businesses with the respect they deserve, even if it's at their inconvenience. A commercial landscape dominated by Wal-Mart and other monopolized chains will erode the aura that makes Athens special. As for students, they can do nothing but continue to support Ski and sport his T-shirts with pride.
Yes, all good things must come to an end, but now should not be that end for Ski's Teases. The world always will be in a state of change, but some things were just meant to stay the same, if for no other reason than to ease our minds.
It would be a real shame for Athens to lose a gem. And besides, where else could I find a Kardiac Kats T-shirt?
-Matt Bixenstine is a senior journalism major. Send him an e-mail matthew..bixenstine@ohiou.edu.
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Matt Bixenstine
