The day was befitting of a day in fall, dismal with a light rain. It was a day that made you want to sit and do nothing, depressing. It was a good day to leave the house and lift our spirits!
Ann Marie, Jim and I headed down to the Northside, to a favorite spot to hang out and visit, City Books. There was no doubt that it was autumn, leaves were floating in the puddles, people were wearing jackets and carrying umbrellas and those with shorts on were regretting their choices.
Inside the store, it was warm and inviting. Boxes of Holiday shipments sat waiting for delivery. The furniture had been rearranged leaving a nice conversation pit surrounding a small round table. There weren’t many walk-ins so we took advantage of this and sat down with Arlan, the store’s owner and started to solve the world’s problems. Books were discussed along with interesting stories and recent travels. It was comfortable sitting in a small circle, watching people rushing by outside in the rain. All it needed was a small fireplace with some crackling logs in it.
This made me remember sitting in a small bookstore in Oakland. Sitting off of South Craig Street, Townsend Books was situated in a small house. There were two floors; the owners lived upstairs and the books downstairs. Bookshelves were everywhere.
One special memory stands out; it was a snowy day, back when a forecast for snow meant more than just a light flurry. The weather was very cold and when I came inside my glasses fogged over. Knocking the snow off my boots the smell of a burning fire hit my senses. After saying good afternoon to the man behind the counter and loosening up my coat and scarf I started browsing the shelves, working my way back to the room that had the fireplace in it. I can remember to this day how I thought that this was exactly what a bookstore should be. A congenial owner behind the counter, lots of exciting books to look through, a couple chairs to sit in while contemplating my purchases and a nice warm fire to sit beside. It didn’t have any animals in it, a dog or a cat would have made it perfect but I’m not going to hold that against them.
In those days there were three bookstores situated near each other in the Oakland area. I made sure to visit all three whenever I was there. Only a couple blocks separated Townsend Books from Bryn Mawr-Vassar Books and the Caliban Book Shop. Townsend Books lasted 21 years before it shut down in 2012. Bryn Mawr shut down earlier in 2005 after 33 years in business. In this section of Oakland, only Caliban Books survives to this day.
History is no stranger to City Books. It was first opened as City Books and Antiques in 1984 on Carson Street on Pittsburgh's South Side. One of the interesting things about this store was the spiral staircase in the middle of the shop and the coffee bar on the 2nd floor. It had a cat or two that would sleep in the window, basking in the sunshine. It remained in the South Side until the final day of 2014. Arlan then bought the store and relocated it to the Northside. It is the oldest Independant Bookstore in Pittsburgh!
(The pictures above were taken on Dec.31,
2014)
Ann Marie and I visited the original store on December 31st, 2014, its last day open. I still have the book I bought that day, The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, written by her daughter Caroline Kennedy. Slipped inside the book is a newspaper article about the store closing. Little did we know that it would soon be re-opened and we would become regular customers and friends with the owner.
Our world takes us on some strange journeys and we never
really know how anything will turn out or where we will end up. The best thing
I can suggest is go along with the flow and enjoy the ride!
After an hour or so, we said our good-byes and let Arlan get back to her work. Stepping out into the wet world outside the comfortable confines of the store, I thought about how good it is to have a local bookstore near-by. I can both feed my literary addiction and spend some time with a friend, or should I say friends? (We can’t forget “the books”!)