The three best used bookstores in northern Delaware: Hockessin Bookshelf, The Bookateria, and Manor Used Books

Show me a city without a good used bookstore and I will show you a city without a soul.

Northern Delaware is exceptionally fortunate to have three very different, but outstanding used bookstores that I frequent as often as possible.  Each has its own personality, its own strengths, and its own reasons why I go there.

A local revolution in health care: Hockessin Walk-in Medical Care

Hockessin Walk-in Medical Care
Lantana Square Shopping Center
Hockessin DE

I started thinking about this blog and this part of the project when I started hearing and seeing advertisements by a major corporation for a new walk-in clinic opening up on Kirkwood Highway that proclaims itself "the neighborly place" to get fast medical care.  Whenever you hear a corporation (banks also come to mind here) talking about being a good neighbor, you know you need to hold onto your wallet.

But the reality is that there is a quiet revolution in walk-in medical care happening at the Lantana Square Shopping Center in Hockessin, in the form of Dr. Vince Schaller's Hockessinn Walk-in (also known locally as the Lantana clinic or other variations of same).

We ended up there for the first time in 2003, maybe a month after the clinic opened, when my daughter had a topic allergic reaction to some chemical she'd gotten on herself on a shopping trip.  In the early days Dr. Vince Schaller was seeing almost all the patients by himself (it's HIS clinic, he's not just an employee, he is the boss), and that was the beginning of a friendship and a business patronage that has extended now for almost a decade.

Dr Vince Schaller is revolutionizing
walk-in medical care in Delaware

Where do I start about Dr. Vince?  He's an emergency medicine specialist who did part of his residency with Dover pediatrician Dr. Janaki Kaza (a local legend there as well), who decided he was tired with the normal models of medical practice and that he could do better.  Go here to read the outstanding patient reviews that Dr. Vince has accrued over the years.

What's better?

1.  The staff:  Dr. Vince has created a topnotch staff.  From the ladies at the front desk to the paras, nurses, PAs, and docs you see, he has hired folks who are far more than a cut above what you'd find at a typical walk-in clinic.  They are professional, friendly, and helpful in ways you cannot yet imagine.  Yes, there are long lines to get treatment some days, so if your issue is not incredibly time sensitive they will take your initial paperwork and your cell phone number and you can leave.  They will call you back when a room and a doctor are actually ready to see you.

2.  They will figure out a way to make it possible for you to see the doctor, even if you don't have insurance or much money.  For insurance billing purposes there is a minimum charge if you are paying cash, and it can be high.  So for first-time visitors with no insurance they hand you a coupon that cuts the cost down to $65 (exclusive of radiology tests if necessary).  Don't have that?  As the plentiful signs in English and Spanish tell you, Dr. Schaller will work out a payment plan for as little as $25 a month, but he WILL see you.

Welcome to OUR DELAWARE: doing business with our neighbors

There is a misconception that Libertarians do not believe in community.  In point of fact, Libertarians believe very strongly in communities based on self-reliance, voluntary cooperation, and grassroots political activity.

Two of the most important aspects of that sort of community are the personal and economic interchanges between individuals in the community that build trust, friendship, and prosperity.

Too often, however, the modern world deludes us into focusing most of our economic interactions on giant corporations or government agencies.

This is a blog (designed mostly for reading via Facebook) that is intended to help connect people in Delaware with other people in Delaware who run great local businesses and provide first quality personal service that you cannot get from a mega-corp or giant chain.

Moreover, when you do business with your neighbors, you strengthen not just the local economy, but the local community.

I do not intend for what is published here to be product or business reviews, but personal experiences and recommendations for excellent local businesses owned and run by great people in our state.  In the beginning, of necessity, most of the posts will be mine, and will necessarily concentrate on businesses I patronize.  Hopefully, if you like what's going on here, you will feel motivated to contribute your own. I will be publishing the procedure for doing that very soon.

The first posts will start appearing later this weekend.

One final note:  if you are ever motivated to visit one of these businesses because of something you see written here, please tell the, and explain that this is all part of a concentrated effort to get people connected in . . . our Delaware.