"That's it!" Camilletti said to the 50 or so happy people outside her store shortly after 5 p.m., Sunday, despite the sweltering heat and humidity. As the crowd applauded, she shouted, "Thirty-four years! Yeah ... yeah!" holding her arms over her head.

Camilletti started out in the music business by playing a small part in helping introduce the Beatles to America. Appropriately, as if to close a long, wondrous circle, it was a Beatles CD purchased by, Art Pedraza of Oak Park her last customer on South Boulevard.

"Hey, Val! Your last customer wants an autograph," someone called out from the store.

"Is that appropriate?" Val said with a big grin.

Addressing the crowd, Camilletti thanked them for their loyalty.

"You guys have been the ones that made it happen," she said. "Who would have thought this little covered alley way would become what it did?"

Camilletti invited everyone to the new Val's halla on Harrison Street, which will open "around the third week in August."

It won't be quite the same as the South Boulevard location, she acknowledged, but she plans to re-create much of what made the store so special.

"We can't duplicate [this], but we can duplicate the spirit of Val's halla."

-Bill Dwyer