I worked part-time on a regular basis at the Maple Street Book Shop from 1976 to 1989. To the disconcertion and dismay of current employees, I still act like I work there whenever I wander into town–helping customers and getting behind the cash register. I am incapable of visiting any book shop without "straightening the shelves."

Some MSBS anecdotes I remember:

When things got slow, one of the employees would hid behind the tall bushes growing in front of the Children’s Shop and put on a ‘puppet show.’ Innocent passersby were verbally accosted and found themselves in conversation with a stuffed penguin.

   Living around the corner of the book shop was a mixed blessing. On most days I could wake up at 9:45 and still be the first one at work. During the winter months, however, I would occasionally receive a phone call at 8 in the morning begging me to go over and light the stoves so that the temperature in the book shop

One morning I found myself in sole charge of the adult book shop. There were customers standing in line to check out and the phone was ringing off the hook when Walker Percy came in to sign hardback copies of The Second Coming and Lancelot. The books were precariously balanced on shelves in the bathroom behind the front desk. When I picked up the stack of Percy books, the two shelves and all the books remaining on them fell on top of me. This gave me something to report when Rhoda came in an hour later and asked how things had gone. My tale of destruction evoked a cry of alarm, but not the response one would normally expect. So much for the American Labor Movement, Worker’s Compensation, and Safety in the Work Place. "Management" had more pressing concerns: "When Walker was here–did you smile? Were you nice to him?"