Once upon a time when I was about 11 years old, I was obsessed with the Trixie Belden mystery series. They are books written for young adults, similar to the original Nancy Drew mysteries and contemporaries of same. Now, while these books were still in print at the time, I lived in little ol’ Hazard, Kentucky, and there were no bookstores in that town save the Christian bookstore that only sold - wait for it - Christian books. No heathen, hell-bound teeny bopper fiction there, no sirree! However, all hope was not lost as I had an aunt who lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where they not only had a bookstore, they had several bookstores. Large bookstores, small ones, used, eclectic - ah, the joys of a large college town.
When summer approached, I headed down the Mountain Parkway with my Mom, on our way to visit my aunt. I was so very, very excited. As soon as we got there, I grabbed the monstrously huge Lexington phone book and sat down to make a list of all the bookstores. Now, in order for you to understand how ‘huge’ the Lexington, Kentucky phone book was, consider that the Hazard, Kentucky phone book is the size (or was at the time) of a Reader’s Digest. No, seriously. They’re that small. Lexington’s phone book at the time was about the size of the Louisville Yellow Pages.
I made my list and handed it to Mom, who looked at me and asked what I wanted her to do with it. “Call them for me,” I said. “See if they have the books I need.” I had been very fortunate in being able to find the first 12-14 or so at the Perry County Library. One of the ladies who worked there, Rhonda, owned the books and wanted to get rid of them. Those came home with me, yes indeedy. However, there were several more volumes in the series that I didn’t have and was determined to get, thus one of our goals on this visit to my aunt’s. Finally convincing Mom to make the call after much wheedling, cajoling and flat out whining, I stood by anxiously with pen and paper in hand while she made the call. I was simply too shy, too afraid they would laugh at me if I called, so Mom was relegated to do the deed. First on the list was Joseph-Beth Booksellers. For those of you not familiar with JB, they are the largest bookstore in the state of Kentucky. The store in Lexington was their flagship store, and now they have several other locations, but even back then in the late 1980s, they were HUGE. Mom dialed the number, waited while it rang…and then it happened. It went something like this:
“Joseph Beth,” said the person who answered the phone. (I’m guessing that is what they said, based on Mom’s response.)
“Do you sell books?” asked Mom while MORTIFIED 11-year-old daughter sank to floor, certain to die from embarrassment within moments or years, whichever was more tortuous. My mother had just asked the BIGGEST bookstore in the ENTIRE STATE of Kentucky if they sold books. Of course, 11-year-old logic dictated that they would know exactly who we were. Uh-huh. Caller ID hadn’t been invented yet. They were psychics, wink, wink, nod, nod.
Pause on other end of line. “Yes, ma’am, we do sell books,” says confused sales person. I managed to pull myself together long enough to give Mom the list of books I was looking for, and she checked off the ones they had, asking them to hold them for us. (Okay, guess they did find out who the odd lady was that had called, after all.)
Unfortunately for me, they didn’t have all the books I wanted, so more bookstores had to be called. Want to hazard a guess at how quickly I grabbed that list and did the task myself? I didn’t think so at the time, but that has become one of my fondest memories. I am sure that she got a big kick out of it, and though she swore up and down that she didn’t do it on purpose, I have to wonder…
Stayed tuned for part II of “How Far….” and I’ll let you know just how far an 11-year-old will really go for a good book.
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