BOOKS AND ANTIQUES

I’ve been having lots of adventures, and one recent one was pretty funny. I was walking home from the library and I could see the back-alley sides of a line of buildings I knew from my last semester at ISU in 1980. A sign on one building said BOOKS AND ANTIQUES, and that place was right next door to the apartment building I lived in at the time. Back then the building was a rickety old mess. I had a spacious high-ceilinged apartment with a bay window and it was right across the street from a big noisy bar called Central Station that had some really good music. In later years, there was a good book store next door where I sold a lot of books I brought back from Nebraska in 1995, and I figured that’s what the BOOKS AND ANTIQUES pertained to.

I could see the back door to the book store, so I figured I would just walk in, as it looked to be open. I did that, and there was a coffee setup for the staff with a hallway off to the right and an office to the right also, so I just walked down the hallway to where I figured the books were. But in every doorway I passed, there was a person working away at a desk, so I figured I had walked into an office building and not a bookstore. I figured then that I would just continue through and walk out the front door. I saw what I figured to be the front door and I turned the handle and there was a nice-looking woman working at a desk inside.

I immediately apologized and said I was looking for the bookstore. She laughed and said, “This is the bookstore but the bookstore went out years ago and the place is all remodeled.” It was really a nice office suite, with the original brick walls exposed and nice fancy wooden floors – kind of subdued and opulent. I told her I used to live next door and she said the old apartments had been converted into expensive condos. I told her how crappy the place used to be and what a jag the landlord was, and I also mentioned the big bar across the street, which has been converted to a somewhat fancy restaurant called Epiphany Farms (“Farm to Table”). I knew a little about Epiphany Farms because I had talked to one of the farmers at the farmers market, but she knew a bit more about them and told me they had a place in LeRoy too. Besides that they have a speakeasy type place – The Cake and Pickle - right around the corner from me across from the natural foods store. I think it’s also a restaurant with expensive food, and this gal said, “It’s a real nice place, but you ought to just go in there and have a drink at the bar.” She was very friendly and easy-going, and she repeated that business about going to the bar for a drink, so I said I would and maybe I would see her there. She said sure and said her name was Ronda – Ronda Glenn – and that was her name on the window. I couldn’t see the window she was alluding to, but I told her my name was Bond – James Bond and asked her how I could get out of the place. She said the receptionist would show me out, so we signed off.

All the time I was talking to her there were people hovering around, and when I turned there were *three* young women waiting to show me out. They seemed a little nervous, kind of like “There’s the door; now get out!” but very sophisticated about it and thanking me for visiting, though I suspected they were kind of freaked out that I had just walked in from the back door unannounced. I asked if the place was a real estate office and they said, “Law firm.” I stepped outside and saw the name on the window Ronda Glenn - Attorneys at Law. It turns out this gal has a big divorce practice.