Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: used books (Page 47 of 128)

Hello, and goodbye, old friend…

The parting of friends can be a dismal event, as such is the loss of good company. Alas, and goodbye my treasured acquaintance. Onward to places afar.

Maybe I get too attached to some of the books? Ya’ think?

First Edition, True Grit. A gritty thing o’ beauty. A nicely kept volume sharing the front of the shop with me. Until this afternoon. My heart jumped when the lady set it on the counter. I hadn’t considered her as a potential book buyer, the way she was roaming the aisles.

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“What a story, that,” I remarked, as I removed the price label.

“Not a contraction in it,” she replied, and I realized immediately my book-child was leaving for a good home. “I run into the author on occasion in Little Rock,” she said. “I hope to get it signed.”

In a small way, that would be a bit like the book-child achieving Sainthood. Ahhh, not a good home. A great home.

And a great story.

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People do not give it credence that a young girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood, but it did happen. So says Mattie Ross, a fourteen-year-old Arkansas girl who tracks the coward Tom Chaney, who shot her father down.

Then, the movies. People love John Wayne’s version, but – being partial to the Coen brothers and Jeff Bridges – I prefer the 2010 telling. It was exciting, though, back in the day when John Wayne was speaking onscreen to J. J. McAlester at his mercantile store in the Indian country. As I was living in McAlester at the time, and much younger, it made a pleasing impression.

The Coens kept the dialogue true to the spirit of the author, typified by this exchange as Mattie stands outside the occupied outhouse:

Rooster Cogburn: The jakes is occupied.
Mattie Ross: I know it is occupied Mr. Cogburn. As I said, I have business with you.
Rooster Cogburn: I have prior business.
Mattie Ross: You have been at it for quite some time, Mr. Cogburn.
Rooster Cogburn: There is no clock on my business! To hell with you! How did you stalk me here?!
Mattie Ross: The sheriff told me to look in the saloon. In the saloon they referred me here. We must talk.
Rooster Cogburn: Women ain’t allowed in the saloon!
Mattie Ross: I was not there as a customer. I am fourteen years old.
[there’s a silence before Cogburn responds]
Rooster Cogburn: The jakes is occupied. Will be for some time.

As a seller of books, I have to resign myself to the fact that some of my favorites will only stay in the shop for a time. I’ll be on the lookout for another copy. It makes for good company.

As for my friend, now departed:

By a time to rise and a time to fall, come fill to me the parting glass. Goodnight, and joy be with you all.

Yeah, I get a little too attached to some of the books. Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St, Broken Arrow OK 74012

No Rest for the Wicked…

This time, I put on the heavy work gloves. Save a knuckle, have a chuckle. Granted, it seems less like work when it has to do with a keg o’ beer.

Those heavy-duty lines that the Boulevard Wheat runs through are an exceptionally tight fit around the nozzle and it only took a second or two of straining to recognize the potential for knuckle-busting. That was one of today’s projects – replacing the line from the keg to the spout. Clean and new. The way it ought to be.

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Project completed without incident. I like the day-off chores a lot better when they go smoothly.

Like the ladder climbing.

When it doesn’t go as planned, and you’re halfway up a tall ladder, bad things can be the end result. I can’t climb a ladder in the shop without thinking of dear old granddad, who – in the middle of one of HIS projects – was suddenly not high up on the ladder anymore.

That was when my father was called into service pulling the beer handle at the Palace, my grandfather’s place in Parsons, Kansas. I have a picture of my father wiping down the counter as the beer-tender while granddad was on the mend. The similarities between our Rose District shop and my grandfather’s place is remarkable. I may have a few more bookshelves, but he has me beat handily with the pinball machines and the lovely wooden wall-sized mirrored bar back. I’ll show you a picture next time you’re in. (And one of these days I’ll post it on the website…)

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Needless to say, I was thinking of G-pa Ray when I was leaning out over the edge of the ladder, trying to drill a mounting hole in the front column. Beyond the matter of keeping my balance, I always feel a little out of sorts putting a drill bit to the beautiful interior of the bookshop. (I can describe it that way, because I’m not responsible for the way the interior renovation turned out. That was the work of Mr John Skaggs, a gentleman and artist-with-wood.)

I always offer a silent apology when I drive a nail. It goes something like: Sorry, Mr Skaggs. Hate to put a nail in your beautiful wall, but I hope to have this picture here for a long, long time. It wasn’t a picture this afternoon, but an old-fashioned hanging sign that will help promote the fact that Dustin and I are now serving beer along with the other beverages at lunchtime. (I’ve had folks come in, then apologize before leaving for the MST across the street, explaining that they wanted to enjoy a beer with their meal.)

Hammer in hand: Sorry, Mr Skaggs. But it’s an attractive sign and should be hanging right where I ran in the screws, for a long, long time.

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Although we had mixed feelings about the antique-y looking Pabst Blue Ribbon wall sconce (PBR, as Dustin calls it), a Friday lunch guest made a fuss over it and what a “classic” wall light it was. Go figure! The old bookcase already had a nail right where the lamp needed to be, so no apologies were required.

We’ve had such a great response to Dustin’s lunchtime Chalkboard Specials that one of our semi-regulars popped in and wanted to see the “new menu.” Right now, it’s still my trusty regular menu, with Chef-D’s daily specials written on the sidewalk chalkboard each morning. I’m hoping to convince him to add a couple of the items as a regular menu item. (They are that tasty!)

Dustin has been posting the daily special on the new Facebook page he created, and he’d want me to mention you can “Like” the page to get the daily update. As you are certainly aware by now, my days of keeping up with technology are less-impressive than they once were. As one of the earliest in Oklahoma to own a VCR (I’m embarrassed today to recall what I paid for that thing!), I have surely dropped the technology-ball where the “Likes” are concerned.

Like it or not, I suppose.

So now, I’m down from the ladder with knuckles intact and no broken bones from those gravity-surges that seem to occur while atop a ladder. Enough with the day-off projects. It’s time for some relaxation.

And laundry.

We’re open Monday in the Rose District, so…

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District, 122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

White Linen Night and I was in Cotton.

High Cotton, and white linen undies.

You don’t really believe that, do you?

The white linen is under the belt. Sauntering the streets in August, Rose District style. We certainly had the warm evening for wearing linen, even if there were a lot of cotton tees on display. Comfort, first of all.

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It was a night for the extended McHuston clan to gather, from Great-grandmother to that happiest grand-daughter o’ mine – and everyone in between. Thanks to daughter Kristen and son Dustin for manning the lines, both on the sidewalk and in the kitchen.

The new beer dispenser got its first real workout and came through with flying colors. Boulevard Wheat on draft. It’s a tasty brew even when it isn’t a hot August night. Which it was.

For the first go-round, White Linen Night in the Rose District will be recorded as a success for McHuston Booksellers & Irish Bistro. Sampled some Bangers & Mash in an unorthodox fashion – on a whitebread roll. Sliced the bread, laid in the sausage link all hot dog fashion, then topped it with creamy, handmade mashed potatoes and a little of our special Irish Stew gravy. Maybe a tad messy, but delicious! A thanks to Rachel for the idea and to all who tried one Saturday evening.

After seeing the photograph that the Tulsa World selected to showcase our little operation, I am reassured that the decision to have Kristen at the cash register was a good one. I’d have rather had her picture on the TW website, but I’ll settle for the brother and sister image I’ve attached.

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Next year, we might make some posters. Maybe a few handbills to pass out in the shopping bags. Try to get an article or two in the news, before the event. (I know there were some, because I read a couple. But a couple more might have helped attendance.) As with any new project, there is a learning curve.

But – truth to tell, it was a success for us.

Anytime we can get together as a family and meet new friends wandering the Rose District – it’s a hit. Cotton, Linen, or Commando.

Here’s to bigger and better next year!

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

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